Vann Nath on display

Vann Nath's Meta House contribution

The Art of Survival exhibition currently on at the Meta House includes some of Cambodia's best artists and that includes Vann Nath. His painting of prisoners being led, blind-folded into Tuol Sleng at night, is an autobiographical scene recalling his own incarceration at the S-21 center. At the same time, an exhibition of his work under the title of Endurance, is being shown in Bangkok at the Foreign Correspondents Club until February 27, at the FCCT in the penthouse of the Maneeya Centre on Phloenchit Road. On display are a series of paintings and sketches depicting his own story of capture, interrogation, imprisonment by the Khmer Rouge, and his ultimate survival. Vann Nath's art is not angry, but it shouts the truth about human suffering and death under the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. It is also a testament to Vann Nath's and the Cambodian people's endurance that enabled them to prevail over tragedy and pain and continue to embrace life.

Detail from Vann Nath's autobiographical painting of S-21 prisoners