Born in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Vandy Rattana lives and works between Phnom Penh, Paris, and Taipei. Co-founder of the artists’ collective Stiev Selapak / Art Rebels in 2007, he also established Sa Sa Art Gallery (2009 – 2010) and SA SA BASSAC (2011), the first artist-run exhibition spaces dedicated to contemporary art in Cambodia.
Concerned with the lack of physical documentation accounting for the stories, traits, and monuments unique to his culture, Vandy Rattana began his practice as a self-taught photographer in 2005. His early serial work employed a range of analog cameras and formats, straddling the line between strict photojournalism and artistic practice. His recent works mark a shift in philosophy surrounding the relationship between historiography and image-making. For Vandy, photographs are, now, fictional constructions, abstract and poetic surfaces; they have histories of their own.
Select solo exhibitions include Surface, SA SA BASSAC, Phnom Penh (2013), Bomb Ponds, Asia Society, New York (2013) and Hessel Museum of Art, New York (2010). His group exhibitions include dOCUMENTA 13), Kassel (2012), 1st Kiev Biennale (2012), Institutions for the Future, Asia Triennial Manchester II (2011), 6th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane (2009).
POSTED on 2013
Fulong beach, Taiwan. 2013
