Battambang, Cambodia’s art and soul

Battambang is at the cutting edge of Cambodia’s new art scene. Claire Knox finds a pretty, sleepy city waking up to its creative potential

The Guardian | Saturday, 30 August 2014

Monks collect morning alms outside Battambang’s Make Maek gallery in front of scultpture by Mao Soviet. Photograph: Mok Roth

The resemblance is rather striking. With his dark hair swept to the side and bee-stung lips, Cambodian painter Chov Theanly is often told he’s the dapper doppelganger of the country’s most well-known crooner, the late Sinn Sisamouth, the Frank Sinatra of Cambodia during the 60s, the country’s golden age.

When Khmer Rouge soldiers marched through Cambodia’s cities in 1975, sending its people to oppressive labour camps, film stars and musicians were some of the brutal regime’s first targets and, like many of his peers, Sisamouth disappeared.

But today, almost 40 years later, the arts are thriving once again, and no more so than in Battambang, a dreamy, peaceful city between the capital Phnom Penh and tourist mecca Siem Reap. While construction has rocketed along at breakneck speeds elsewhere, Battambang has, despite being the country’s second-largest city, remained relatively untainted by tourism and mass development. The Sankae river snakes through town, while rice fields, leafy villages and glittering pagodas halo around its edges.

I meet 28-year-old Theanly at a small, artist-run space called Sammaki in the middle of town for an informal art tour. A graphic designer and painter who works from a cool, airy attic above his father’s Chinese shophouse on the riverbank, Theanly is one of a wave of home-grown artists enjoying recent success – his exhibition, entitled Surviving, sold out on its opening night in Phnom Penh last year.

“Everything is just very open and creative and collaborative in Battambang,” he tells me. “There’s an honesty here.” 

Perhaps at the core of the city’s artistic revival is the visual arts centre Phare Ponleu Selpak. The sprawling arts school teaches visual, applied and performing arts, provides a formal state education curriculum for almost 1,000 students and welcomes tourists through its gates almost every day of the year, with a circus troupe performance twice a week in the bright big top tent. Phare’s visual arts graduates are now opening their own contemporary art galleries, studios and workshops, and we visit artist-curator Mao Soviet who runs Make Maek, and the newly opened artist-collective space called Studio Art Battambang. It’s a cavernous old shophouse that exhibits large, bamboo sculptures and huge canvases. We pop next door to refuel at Kinyei, a social enterprise cafe with probably the best coffee in Cambodia (try a piccolo or a “Cambodian street latte” with palm sugar and orange essence).

 

On Theanly’s suggestion I head to another social enterprise eatery for dinner, the innovative Jaan Bai, on Street 2. With Bangkok-based celebrity chef David Thompson involved in the set-up and menu design, it’s a fun spot to unwind – local artists were commissioned to create a huge, psychedelic mural on the restaurant’s outside wall and the menu is designed for sharing. Head chef Mohm trained intensively with Thompson at the Bangkok Nahm and the menu reflects this – there’s a delicious Thai green curry, a finger-licking good dish of crab from the seaside hamlet Kep with Kampot pepper with chilli jam and a fiery kick. Cocktails have a Khmer twist – try the dragonfruit caipirinha and the lemongrass bloody mary.

The terrace at Jaan Bai restaurant

Besides the contemporary art scene, Battambang’s striking architecture adds to its allure. To the north of town lies the magnificent Sala Khaet, the old Governor’s Residence. In 1905 the last Thai “lord governor”, Chhum Aphaiwong, hired Italian architects to erect this sweeping European-style palace. Elsewhere, French colonial villas and art deco structures rub shoulders with striking modernist “New Khmer” buildings erected during the 1960s.

 

The influence of China is evident too – one good example is at Lotus, a sleek restaurant-cum-gallery in a three-storey Chinese shophouse, painstakingly restored by Battambang expat Darren Swallow. While the restaurant serves middle-eastern fare – house-made hummus, baba ganoush, Iraqi-style laffe flatbread, couscous and lentil salads – the second floor hosts art exhibits and screens independent films and documentaries.

I venture out of town on my last day and join a half-day cycling tour with Soksabike, another community project set up by Kinyei cafe. It’s a 30km loop around the villages and gives us a glimpse into the various agricultural industries – rice paper production, dried fruits, rice liquor and prahok (fermented fish paste) are some – that support Battambang’s economy.

Cycling tour with Soksabike, a community project

Weaving along palm-fringed roads in the early morning haze is a dreamy experience. We continue down red-dirt roads, through a maze of bamboo trees and lush countryside. Women with checked kramas (cotton scarves) wrapped around their heads smile and wave at us.

 

Later, we see women wearing hijabs in a rainbow of colours do the same. This north-western area is home to many Muslim Cham villages, and is studded with ornate mosques. This melting pot of cultures, ethnicities and religions, plus the juxtaposition of old and new, is what Theanly finds captivating about Battambang, and something he thinks makes it a great spot for creativity.

“My aunt grew up in this town in the 1960s,” he says. “She always tells me stories of Sinn Sisamouth coming up here to visit other stars: how they would stroll along the river and he would play the harmonica. One of his famous songs, Oh Battambang, is about this river, and I think most people who come here see what he saw … they see what’s so special. I can’t imagine being anywhere else right now.”

• Singapore Airlines flies from Heathrow to Phnom Penh via Singapore for about £680 return. Buses run regularly from Phnom Penh to Battambang (five to six hours, $7) and from Siem Reap (four to five hours, $4) but for a more comfortable and faster ride, a private taxi from Phnom Penh (four hours) and Siem Reap (three-four hours) costs about $50. Theanly’s art tours can be arranged through Lotus (#53, Street 2 ½, +855 92 260 158). They’re free but tipping your guide or making a donation to Sammaki is recommended. Soksabike bike tours (soksabike.com) cost from $27 for half a day. For somewhere to stay, Battambang Resort (+855 12 510100, battambangresort.com, garden rooms from $60), lies amid rice fields on the southern fringes of the city, and owner Phary offers food tours