Beyond the Silence, an Exhibition in Cambodia
The third exhibition of "Beyond the Silence" opens at the Angkor Photo Festival in Siem Reap, Cambodia until February 28, 2025, and explores themes of kidnapping and abduction through the work of three photographers
Beyond the Silence, a collaborative project organized by Magnum Photos in partnership with Odesa Photo Days Festival (Ukraine), with the support of the Open Society Foundations and Ukrainian Institute, seeks to create a dialogue between photographers from different countries to illuminate common experiences and challenges around the concepts of ongoing occupation and annexation, the impact of colonialism and censorship, and individual and collective choices to resist or adapt in times of war. Initiated after the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the initiative turns to photography as a medium that can convey authentic narratives and illustrate the impact of actions taken by authorities and individuals around the world.
The third exhibition opened its doors on February 12 for two weeks at the Chocolate Garden in Krong Siem Reap, Cambodia, as part of the 20th edition of the Angkor Photo Festival & Workshops (AFPW). While the global Beyond the Silence project is curated by Katerina Radchenko, the exhibition in Cambodia is locally curated by AFPW’s director and founder Jessica Lim, who dedicated most of her life to supporting the work of photographers worldwide.
The exhibition explores the themes of “Kidnapping and Abduction,” while showcasing all other different themes explored as part of the project in other parts of the world, namely resistance, territories and censorship/propaganda. “All the different themes of the exhibition are so relevant for the country,” Lim says. AFPW, the oldest photography event in the region, is a non-profit organization launched in 2005, dedicated to providing opportunities to photographers in South East Asia to enhance professional development.
“Photographers from different parts of the world are struggling and exploring the same issues, so I hope it can provide a fresh perspective, a sense of solidarity that we are not alone in our struggle for justice,” the director says, adding that she hopes the exhibition will benefit not only the artists, but also the international and local visitors who will see it.
The three series specific to the region are Antoine d’Agata’s complex and abstract work on the concealed agency of the United States in the inherent violence of the global system with a focus on Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Another is by Myanmar photographer Sai ▇▇▇, who explores the arbitrary detention of prisoners by the Myanmar junta, a phenomenon he has personally experienced as his father is one of those detained today. Finally, Ukrainian photographer Daria Svetilova explores the significance of child abductions in Ukraine during the war.
Antoine D’Agata
Theorem Entendre/Voir/Lire (Hear/See/Read)
The French photographer seeks to explore in an abstract and complex way the concealed long-term systemic violence that the United States has inflicted on some Asian populations through military interventions, while questioning a broader system that allows this violence to perpetuate and take on new forms even today.
“Violence must be placed in the broader context of the hegemonic world in which we live, a world that makes the will of extermination pervasive and accepted,” D’Agata writes.
“In Laos, I photographed bomb craters as a reminder of a traumatic history of mass destruction and its resulting scars. In Vietnam, I focused on young victims of the use of napalm by the U.S. Army. Three generations after the end of the war, the effects of genetic mutation continue to be observed in the bodies of those affected. In Cambodia, I conducted interviews with ex-Khmer Rouge soldiers, politicians and torturers, trying to get a sense of the origin of a history of violence,” he explains.
Sai ▇▇▇
Trails of Absence: Please Enjoy Our Tragedies
Myanmar photographer Sai ▇▇▇, whose surname was concealed for safety purposes, explores the experiences of political prisoners in his country and the impact of abductions on their families. The son of a prisoner of the Myanmar junta since the attempted coup in 2021, Sai ▇▇▇ is driven by the need to reveal the methodology of repression and torture used by the military to perpetuate discrimination and violence against civilians and members of religious and ethnic groups. His work focuses on the Myanmar-Thailand border.
“I’m just a messenger, on the trail of the silenced stories of those who have endured unimaginable suffering. With empathy and tears, I’ve collected them from my family: those survivors who have faced similar atrocities as my father, victims of irreparable pain and indescribable cruelty living in constant fear of arrest, extortion and deportation by the Thai police. As difficult as it is to share their traumas, they believe that by sharing their stories, their voices will finally be heard around the world and justice will, one day, be achieved.”
"I’m just a messenger, on the trail of the silenced stories of those who have endured unimaginable suffering."
- Sai ▇▇▇,
Daria Svertilova
They Used to Be There
Ukrainian photographer Daria Svertilova’s series depicts the Russian abduction of Ukrainian children in the context of the war.
“I look at the issue of abduction through the prism of associations and images, and interpret it as the embodiment of one of the greatest fears of children,” she writes. While delving into the topic of child abduction in Ukraine, and seeing images of those who returned, Svertilova looked for a way to document the absence of those still missing. “Visiting the places where they once lived, on Ukraine-controlled territory, felt essential,” she says, adding that material aspects of their lives such as clothes, drawings or shoes remained untouched in some since their abduction in the place she visited. What she calls “haunted relics amid silence and abandonment.”
"As of 2025, more than 19,000 Ukrainian children have been deported and 2000 are missing, according to the Ukrainian NGO Children of War."
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Source: Ukrainian NGO Children of War
In 2022, children from Kherson and Novopetrivka were taken to Russia. When she visited these places, the photographer realized the extent of the abduction. “That day, I stood in the doorway and looked down the dark, silent corridor to where the dim daylight poured in,” she writes. Half an hour later, a short bombardment began — somewhere nearby, judging by the sound. And then there was absolute silence. And darkness. I stood still for a few seconds, remembering how, as a child, I was afraid to walk down the dark corridor at home at night. I was afraid of what might be hiding in the darkness — some mysterious evil force.”
“How many children were taken away forever? Which of them will return? What will happen to them after the re-education camps, after growing up in Russian foster families? What will happen to their lives, their psyche, their sense of identity?”
Visit Beyond the Silence at the Angkor Photo Festival in Siem Reap, Cambodia until March 10, 2025.
Two further exhibitions will take place in different locations around the world over the next few months. The next exhibition will open in Lagos, Nigeria featuring the work of Newsha Tavakolian, and a group exhibition encompassing the full Beyond the Silence project will take place in Ukraine. More details to follow.
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Beyond the Silence: Censorship and Propaganda
