From 20 June 2026, Art for Kep welcomes Shanghai Chang for a one-month residency at the singular setting of Knai Bang Chatt, in Kep. A contemporary artist, filmmaker, and notable co-founder of the Homeless Artists Collective, Shanghai Chang is based in Phnom Penh and works across a wide range of creative disciplines, reflecting a deep engagement with Cambodia's evolving cultural and social landscapes.

Kep-sur-Mer was once a dream made concrete. Modernist villas rising from the jungle above a silken Gulf. French colonists and Khmer royalty. Prince Sihanouk shooting films in golden light. Then, almost overnight, the rockets came. And the silence that followed lasted decades — a silence inhabited only by ghosts, roots, and the sea.

With Beneath the Sea, presented in Kep as part of CIIF 360 and Art for Kep, director Vinay Bharadwaj delivers a film that is both aesthetic and committed, conceived to celebrate the beauty of the coastline while raising awareness about the fragility of the marine world.

In Kep, art is now envisioned as a bridge between the sea, the local community, and environmental preservation. In this landscape undergoing a cultural renaissance, the book Kep Raw 2026 (Blurb, 2026) stands out as a singular graphic voice, carried by the Art for Kep artist residency.

The Art for Kep association, active in cultural promotion in Cambodia, is opening applications for the Cinematic Artist Challenge 2026. Under the evocative theme “Kep in 3 Minutes – Our People, Our Culture, Our Ocean,” this call invites local and international creators to produce original works exactly three minutes long.

In a constantly evolving world, art remains a universal language that reflects, questions, and transforms our relationship to reality. In Kep, a small coastal haven of Cambodia, a new artistic dynamic is blossoming — driven by a bold vision and a deep commitment to nature and the local community.