During my residency at Sa Sa Art Projects in Phnom Penh, I stayed for three weeks at their studio in the White Building, a major housing complex with a unique history, stretching across 5 blocks of reclaimed land along the Bassac River in downtown, with nearly 500 apartment units.
The White Building was built in the early 1960s to accommodate a rapidly growing urban population. Like most of the rest of Phnom Penh, its residents were forced out into the countryside by the Khmer Rouge in 1975. After the KR were removed from power, residents returned and slowly created a thriving artistic community, among whom reside classical musicians and dancers, craftspeople, street vendors, and civic cultural workers.
Over the decades as Phnom Penh modernized around it, the White Building has fallen into disrepair, the once "white" exterior obscured by a layer of soot and rust, creaky infrastructure, and poor sanitation. Petty crime, drugs, sex work, and poverty have become increasingly associated with it, and the government has repeatedly condemned it for demolition and rezoning, most recently in 2014, but has encountered resistance -- having offering few viable alternatives for the nearly 3000 people who live there.
Most SSAP works focus on highlighting the community inhabiting the White Building, and has gradually accumulated a fascinating media archive about its diverse residents, their daily lives, struggles, and aspirations.
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