OUR WORK: Bangsokol, A Requiem for Cambodia

PROGRAM: Arts Development
AIMED AT: Arts audiences worldwide

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Bangsokol: A Requiem for Cambodia is a composition featuring music, voice, movement and visuals. It is the first major symphonic work addressing the late 1970s in Cambodia. It is also the first collaboration between filmmaker Rithy PANH and composer HIM Sophy.

The word ‘bangsokol’, references both the white cloth placed over the deceased during a Buddhist funeral and the ritual surrounding the removal of the cloth. It is through this ritual that the spirits of the dead find rest.

Bangsokol: A Requiem for Cambodia is an act of cultural renewal; it aims to return the arts to the heart of Cambodian society. It seeks to become a memorial for peace, honoring all victims of violent conflict.

Dates: 2017

  • October – PREMIERE, Melbourne, Australia
  • 15 & 16 December – Next Wave Festival 2017, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), New York, USA
  • 19 & 20 December – Arts Emerson, Boston, USA

Dates: 2018

  • 16 May – Philharmonie de Paris, Paris, France

Dates: 2019

  • TBA, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

More info: visit the dedicated Bangsokol website here.

“When I composed the requiem I relived the feelings I had during the Khmer Rouge times. It was hell on earth. It is important for the requiem to be shown around the world so that everyone can see that tragedy is a shared experience. There is hope in creation. I always tell people, ‘Remember, never forget. Protect the future from repeating the past.”

HIM Sophy

“Some have said that poetry after atrocity is not possible anymore, yet we need to have it. We must continue to create. We can’t start mourning without knowing how, and part of knowing how is to accept something very painful, something unexplainable. This art may bring us answers, help us accept our pain and loss. Yet, it is more than an act of remembrance, it’s an act of transmission and brings humanization. Something which the Khmer Rouge attempted to take away from us.”

Rithy PANH

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