Cambodia, the Time of Memory: When Art Summons the Voices of Silence
- La Rédaction
- 5 hours ago
- 2 min read
On December 9, 2025, the Ségur Hall of the UNESCO House in Paris opens its doors to the exhibition "Cambodia, the Time of Memory," led by Franco-Cambodian artist Séra and young painters Margaret Millet and Nov Cheanick.
Conceived on the occasion of the International Day of Commemoration of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and the Affirmation of Their Dignity, the exhibition invites the public to a sensitive face-to-face with the still burning legacy of the Khmer Rouge tragedy.
Séra, a Sharp Memory
Séra's trajectory is inseparable from Cambodian history, marked by the evacuation of Phnom Penh, disappearances, and exile. Author of the bronze memorial "To Those Who Are No Longer Here," installed at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh, the artist makes the human figure a witness body, both intimate and universal, to evoke the absent and those who remain.
Three Artists, One Thread
At the Ségur Hall, Séra shares the space with Margaret Millet and Nov Cheanick, two artists whose pictorial engagement weaves a dialogue with hers on Cambodian memory across generations. Their large canvases respond to each other, intertwining visual writings where abstraction, fragments of bodies, and mental landscapes mingle to create a place conducive to contemplation and reflection.
Memory as a Shared Space
Beyond commemoration, "Cambodia, the Time of Memory" questions how societies look at their own wounds through art, transmission, and public debate. By bringing to UNESCO a work born in the heart of Phnom Penh and creations by young artists, the exhibition shifts the memory of the Cambodian genocide onto a global stage, reminding that the prevention of mass crimes begins with listening to stories long silenced.
An Opening as an Act of Presence
The opening reception, organized from 2 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on December 9, includes a performance by Séra, extending in a living gesture the frozen silhouettes of her sculptures. Open until December 16 at the UNESCO House, the exhibition offers visitors a suspended moment to look at Cambodia differently: not only as a wounded country but as a territory of active memory, where art becomes a form of symbolic justice.