Sa Sa Art Projects, with the support of the Australian Embassy, is pleased to present Where Is My Land? by Khvay Samnang with Nget Rady. The exhibition comprises a three-channel video installation and photography. It will be accompanied by a series of lectures that present historical and regional contexts. Where Is My Land? is presented at the new location of Sa Sa Art Projects, following our recent, reluctant departure from the White Building, where we were based from 2011 until June 2017. Our new space is larger and more flexible, reflecting our expanded programming, which will include exhibitions alongside artists’ residencies and educational activities.

Where Is My Land? is a collaboration between celebrated visual artist Khvay Samnang and acclaimed dancer Nget Rady, working together for the first time. This is the premiere of the exhibition in Cambodia, and its presentation now is timed to coincide with Khvay Samnang’s simultaneous appearance at Documenta 14 in Athens, Greece and Kassel, Germany. Held every five years, Documenta is one of the world’s largest and most prestigious exhibitions of contemporary art. Samnang’s presentation there — as one of only two Southeast Asian artists — is also made in collaboration with Nget Rady, and it grew out of a process begun with Where Is My Land?

Where Is My Land? is a mesmerizing three-channel video, which shows Rady dancing in three locations around Phnom Penh: in the sand-filled remnants of what was once Boeung Snour, with the Peng Huot housing estate visible in the background; on the ruins of a destroyed house in a seriously eroded section of riverbank along the Mekong; and in the sand-pumping pipes in front of a Cham fishing village, with the Sokha Hotel looming.

Nget Rady’s performance in each of these locations responds to the intensity of the physical environment. While Rady is classically trained in the lkhon khol tradition, in Where Is My Land? little trace of recognizably Khmer dance gestures can be seen. The dance is mostly improvised, with fine muscle twitches and expressive looks creating a sense of intimacy with the camera and viewer.

Khvay Samnang’s direction alternates between close-up shots lingering on these details, and wide-angle views of the hauntingly unnatural-seeming environments. A tantalizing narrative begins to emerge, with the dancing figure appearing displaced, disturbed, desperate.

Several hundred homes have fallen into Cambodia’s rivers in recent years, and several deaths have been reported. Villagers blame the extreme erosion on sand-dredging barges and pipelines, the sound of which torments them day and night. With few options for compensation and little if any access to the luxury developments for which the sand is being mined, many are left wondering: Where Is My Land?

Where Is My Land? is held in the Permanent Collection of the National Gallery of Australia.

The exhibition will be guest-curated by Roger Nelson.