Vandy Rattana

b. 1980, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Lives and works in Taiwan

Vandy Rattana studied law at the Pannasastra University of Cambodia and is a self-taught photographer. He co-founded the artist collective ‘Stiev Selapak’ (art rebels) in 2007, and with them opened the alternative space ‘Sa Sa Art Gallery’ in 2009, followed by ‘Sa Sa Art Projects’ in 2010, both in Phnom Penh. The latter hosts artist residencies, workshops, and community-based collaborations. In 2011, Sa Sa Art Gallery merged with BASSAC Art Projects to become SA SA BASSAC.

Inspired by photojournalism’s roots in bearing witness and its activist vein, Rattana has trained his lens on challenging conditions in his home country, documenting natural and manmade disasters. He also experiments with photographic abstraction and makes use of video. The project of recording and preserving is especially poignant in Cambodia, which lost significant historical archives during the violent cultural cleansing campaign implemented by the communist Khmer Rouge regime (1975–79). Rattana operates in a context in which the act of remembrance is a form of subversion.

Biography information from The Guggenheim, March 2023