Erin Gleeson, Phnom Penh desk editor for Art Asia Pacific, writes of the increasing cross border relationships between the Vietnamese and Cambodian contemporary arts communities.

These collaborations provide stimuli for Cambodia’s nascent contemporary art movement. With economic cooperation between the two countries increasing- a recent bi-lateral trade agreement will create 20 border crossings in 2007- further artistic exchange is inevitable and anticipated.

COM.PASSION is happy to announce the scheduled opening of Cambodia’s first Art & Communication Center META HOUSE on the 12th of January 2007 – in cooperation with the International Academy (INA) at the Free University of Berlin. From January to April 2007 META HOUSE ("meta" in khmer: "compassion") hosts the first phase of the multi/media/art exhibition and event series INTERCITY: URBAN ARTS FOR ASIA - under patronage of the German Ambassador to Cambodia, H. E. Pius Fischer.

Within the second phase (2008) several SE Asian cities and artists are linked throughout an exchange program and workshops. The third phase (2009) will result in a catalogue, an interactive DVD and an exhibition in Berlin/Germany.

On three floors and a roof top terrace overlooking Phnom Penh META HOUSE will welcome participants, friends and guests from all around the globe.

INTERCITY Artists (more to be confirmed…)
Phnom Penh, Cambodia: Chhim Sothy, Chhoeun Rithy, Chan Pisey, Nico Mesterharm, Stephane Janin, Vandy Rattana
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam: Bertrand Peret, Julie Tseselsky, Bui Cong Khahn, Ly Hoang Ly, B-Crew, Motoko Uda, Rich Streitmatter-Tran, Sandrine Llouquet
Chiang Mai, Thailand: Sutthirat Supaparinya
Singapore: Kerstin Duell
Sydney, Australia: Melita Koulmandas
Paris, France: Nicolas Lainez
Berlin, Germany: Chris Zippel, Dieter Stadler, Hildegard Knef, Igor Paasch, Jana Teuchert, Lila Space Creations, Lothar Winkler, Lutz Mattstaett, Ollie Peters & Sven Zuege, Walter Dietmann, Wolfgang Brueckner
Aurich, Germany: Herbert Mueller
Belgrade, Serbia: Nikolai Todorovic
Chicago, USA: Maurice Oliver and Diana Krause-Oliver

The three-years-project INTERCITY is dedicated to city cultures from Phnom Penh to Berlin – from “New Asia“ to "Old Europe“, from the glitzy boulevards to the backyards of societies, to the basements and undergrounds and back to the future of our neighbourhoods. How do citizens envision their living environments and how can they shape them? What skills are needed to survive in a hostile environment? Whose ideas prevail if they are not documented? Can art be a vehicle for social change, or should art be a self-critical discipline that pursues primarily aesthetic ends? What is the relationship between art and mass culture?

Everybody is invited to join the INTERCITY exhibitions, parties, film screenings, performances, panels, discusssions and meetings. The entrance is free. A share of the revenues will be donated to the "Children’s Help Cambodia“ Foundation, which is building a children’s village for 96 orphans and vulnerable children on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.

Please hook up with us! We are not only encouraging artists, painters, sculpturers, filmmakers, photographers, poets, performers or musicians, but also forethinkers, urban planners, architects, scientists and journalists to contribute something special and unique to the INTERCITY project. Anybody who would like to participate should write to: Nico Mesterharm, mesterharm@gmx.net.

Information
+ Art Asia Pacific
+ Reflow. Java Arts.
+ Meta House. Intercity Asia 07.