| 20.07.2008
Cambodia is one of the countries in the
world with the most tremendous
changes within the last 40 years. The once high advance country and
center of
the Khmer Empire, was hit by the evil civil war and the genocide in the
1970s and came into Vietnamese occupation in the 80s. Then in the early 90s the UN got the
authority to supervise the politics and conflicts in Cambodia. From this time on the
country has been shifting
to modernism. Today Cambodia is a parliamentary representative
democracy with a
rapid developing economy.
Yoko
Toda contrasts
these changes in an installation of her photographs from the mid 1960s
and a
video of the modern city life of 2008. The 3-piece installation
emphasizes the contrast
of modernism and tradition, noise and silence, movement and slowness.
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01.05.2008 Photographs from Yoko Toda are now part of the collection of the National
Museum in Phnom Penh. The museum contains the most amazing artefacts of Cambodian
history especially of Khmer and the Angkor era and is complemented by more
recent examples of photographs of the country. The photographs are now among
the best and largest collection of Khmer art and culture.
One of
them has a special historical significance as it shows a very important
sculpture of Angkor Wat which has been disappeared for a long time. Recently
the head of the sculpture has been discovered in Germany and will now be
returned to the National Museum. Yoko Toda’s photo, taken in 1965, can help to
find the still missed body of the sculpture as it
is maybe the
best-shaped image which is known.
Ministry of Culture and Art http://www.mcfa.gov.kh/index_en.php
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14.03.2008
The photographs are now part of the
collection of the Audiovisual Resource Center
in Pnom Penh Cambodia.The mission of the
Audiovisual Resource Center is to collect the images and
sounds of the Cambodian memory and making
them available to a wide public.
Bophana Audiovisual Resource Center: http://www.bophana.org/
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Future
Projects: Yoko Toda's next aim is to project the
smiling Buddha-Face on central buildings of western metropolis.
The Buddha shows the peaceful, spiritual and
high culture past of the Khmer
Empire with its capital Angkor Wat. The temple of Angkor, which goes
back to
Greek influence, as god was emerged from the human figure and the
dedication
either to Hinduism or to Buddhism stands for the cultural and religious
diversity.
The Buddha's silent and spiritual beauty
contrasts also with the
stressful public space of a modern city and stands for an example of
the
precious heritage of human cultures. Therefore the Buddha symbolizes
the peace
on earth and is an hopeful sign for the freedom between different
cultures.
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