Metropolis Japan

Cambodian Artist Kim Hak’s Exhibition「Alive IV」

Aug 19, 2022 at 12:00am ~ Sep 28, 2022 at 11:59pm

Tokyo Venue
Period: 19 (Fri) – 28 (Sun) August 2022, 11:00-20:00
Open every day throughout the exhibition period
Venue: Spiral Garden (5-6-23 Minami Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo)
Fee: Free of charge

Yokohama Venue
Period: 9 (Fri) – 25 (Sun) September 2022, 11:00-18:00
Open every day throughout the exhibition period.
Venue: Elevated Studio Site-A Gallery (1-6 Koganecho, Naka-ku, Yokohama City,
Kanagawa Prefecture)
Fee: Free of charge

Cambodian artist Kim Hak (born 1981)’s exhibition Alive IV will be held in Tokyo and Yokohama this summer. The exhibition tells the stories of the Cambodian people who fled from the oppression of the Khmer Rouge regime and came to Japan in 1980s with photographs of the personal belongings and accompanying texts.

Many Cambodians were forced to flee their country to escape oppression, massacre and war under the Khmer Rouge regime of the 1970s. They left their homes with few possessions: only the most valuable or practical items were brought along on this difficult journey. Kim became interested in this period of history and the personal memories of what happened to his parents’ generation, he started the project Alive by visiting survivors of the Khmer Rouge era and documenting their personal belongings and their stories.

In 2020, Kim travelled to Japan on a fellowship from the Japan Foundation Asia Center to meet the Cambodian communities mainly living in Kanagawa Prefecture. The exhibition is structured around the stories of 13 Cambodian families he met during his stay which includes those who came to Japan as refugees in the 1980s.

In time like this that the world faces serious refugee issues, this exhibition will be a meaningful opportunity for us to think of those vulnerable people and consider it as our problem, not somebody else’s.

Kim will be in Japan for his exhibition and his artist-in-residence program in Yokohama.

Artist’s profile

Kim Hak, photography artist.

Born in 1981, in Battambang City, in the northwest of Cambodia.

Kim Hak was born two years after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime and he grew up listening to his parent’s memories of that time. Now, he uses his art practice to raise awareness of this country’s past – to remember, reclaim and reinterpret Cambodian social history from before, during and after the Khmer Rouge era.

Hak’s work has explored a number of themes related to the cultural fabric of Cambodia, including survivor stories (memory, refugee camps, host countries, Cambodian diasporas, healing process, communities, humanity, and renaissance), the funeral of King Sihanouk, architectural documentation and also the wider changing landscape of his homeland.

He has exhibited extensively throughout Asia, Oceania, Europe, Canada and the United States of America. His work has featured internationally at art and photography festivals and has been published in a number of prominent photography journals.

Image credit: Kim Hak, “NOTEBOOK AND LACE BLOUSES
(MRS. SAM SONN, BORN IN 1956 IN KAMPOT, LIVES IN KANAGAWA)” from Alive Project