Mural artists from far and wide set to reveal talent in the capital

11 Dec 2018 2410 | Cambodia Events & Sports

Street art festival, Cambodia Urban Art, returns for its fourth edition this weekend, displaying street murals around Phnom Penh by talented young artists from around the world.

The street pieces will mainly be found in the area around the Royal Palace and in BKK1.

The open event, which is mostly free of charge and runs for four days, aims to promote street art and discover fresh talent.

“Our festival aims to develop the street art scene in Cambodia and discover young talent. Also, as it is a free entry event, the purpose is to make art accessible to all and to share as much artistic content as possible,” said

Laetitia Troussel, a member of the organising team which also includes French artist Chifimi, whose work regularly features traditional Khmer dance.

“We paint in the city but we also organise events with dance performances, live bands, video projection and live painting sessions,” Troussel added. “We like people to do art themselves, so this Saturday we will be organising a free workshop session at FCC Mansion Heritage Bar, so both the young and adults can come paint with us.”

The event will feature 15 murals by 10 artists from Cambodia, France, Argentina and Spain. Rising Cambodian artist Davido is among them. His interest in street art originated at the first event back in 2015, saying that the nature of street art means the painters’ work is on display all the time.

“I will be doing murals [and] painting animals. One of my walls depicts [the critically endangered Southeast Asian wild bovine] the kouprey. It will be portrayed in a surrealist way. I mainly work with shades of blue, so my mural will feature that colour and tones within it,” Davido said.

The young Cambodian artist, who previously painted a giant mural of a forest featuring a tiger intertwined with a lotus, said his artwork this year will feature on walls in streets 380 and 13.

The festival starts on Thursday with a pre-opening event at Samai Distillery on Street 830 (on the corner with So-thearos Boulevard).