When Naima came to Cambodia to research contemporary art we talked about how Java Arts (now Java Creative Cafe) came about.
“I have tried to come up with different metaphors to describe what I do,” says Dana Langlois, founder of the Phnom Penh art space at Java Arts and Creative Café. “My favorite is making soup. By having conversations with artists, as well as observing and researching, I tend to identify things that have creative potential for me. I’ll take all of these ingredients and throw them in the pot. I then turn on the heat and see what happens.”
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Naima Morelli is an art writer and curator with a focus on contemporary art from the Asia Pacific region. She has written for ArtsHub, Art Monthly Australia, Art to Part of Culture and Escape Magazine, among others, and she is the author of “Arte Contemporanea in Indonesia, un’introduzione” a book focused on the development of contemporary art in Indonesia. As a curator, her practice revolves around creating meaningful connections between Asia, Europe and Australia.
Photo supplied: Yean Reaksmey and Dana Langlois at the opening of Object(s) of Collecting