Cambodia & France: Silk Memories, a journey between East and West in the heart of Paris

Under the hushed vaults of the Galerie du Crous, a stone's throw from Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the Galerie OIA is unveiling an exhibition from 9 to 14 September 2025 that reads like a visual poem: ‘Mémoires de Soie’ (Memories of Silk). Part of the prestigious Parcours des Mondes, this presentation brings together artists from Asia and the West in a subtle dialogue between tradition, memory and contemporaneity.

“Ephemeral” (Epiphyllum Oxypetallum) by Su Mei Yu. Acrylic ink and Indian ink on rice paper, mounted on a fabric roll. Red ink seal, intaglio engraving

Silk becomes page and material, breath and memory, linked to ancient ritual practices as much as to artistic innovation. Gilded paper, a fragile mirror of the sacred, unfolds in its changing reflections. Watercolour, meanwhile, brings the lightness of a breath, a pause between past and present. Together, these materials sketch out a meditative path where each fragment seems suspended between history and living creation.

Between Asian heritage and contemporary language

The exhibition brings together unique worlds: Su Mei-Yu (Taiwan), whose rice paper scrolls transform plants into ephemeral visions; Kim-Leng Ung (Cambodia), whose intimate use of colour reflects memory and exile; Tây Nguyen (Vietnam), heir to a vibrant culture that informs his pictorial style; and Christine Boumeester, a major figure in modern art who combines Dutch, French and Indonesian influences.

Alongside them, a new generation of Cambodian artists brings the exhibition into the present: Heng Ravuth, Theanly Chov, Emmanuelle Nhean, Karona Hoeuy and Luna Kol, each offering their own voice, between figuration and abstraction, between intimate memory and a view of the contemporary world.

Silk as a sensitive memory

The exhibition invites visitors to immerse themselves in an experience that brings together hanging scrolls, meticulous coloured pencil drawings, ceramics and ancient sculptures. One of these sculptures is particularly eye-catching: a 9th-century male deity in sandstone, a witness to a distant past where spirituality, power and art were inseparable. The resonance between these works is no coincidence: it is not a juxtaposition, but a genuine conversation between eras and traditions.

Each piece becomes an imprint of memory, evoking both the intensity of the moment and the duration of a centuries-old transmission. Silk, a precious but fragile fabric, a metaphor for life itself, becomes a medium and a symbol, a place of passage between East and West, between craftsmanship and contemporary art.

A vernissage as a ritual of sharing

On the evening of 9 September, the exhibition will open in a convivial atmosphere, until 9 p.m., for a first encounter between artists, collectors and visitors. This is not just an exhibition, but a journey: a journey through a textile and sensory memory, where the artistic gesture becomes breath, and where the shadow of the past nourishes the light of the present.

On the cover, ‘Éphémère’ (Ephemeral), a work by Su Mei-Yu, sets the tone: a night flower, painted in ink and acrylic on rice paper, mounted on silk and sealed with a red seal. Like a fleeting apparition, it reminds us that all beauty is transient, but that art keeps a trace of this evanescent dialogue.

‘Mémoires de Soie’ thus transforms the Galerie du Crous into an ephemeral sanctuary, where one comes not only to admire, but also to meditate. Faced with these fragile and powerful works, between gold and transparency, watercolour and millennial stone, visitors witness a motionless journey, an intimate crossing from Asia to Europe, from history to the present day.

A silk thread, stretched between past and future, serves as the framework here: fragile but unbreakable, delicate but imbued with memory.