In collaboration with "The Giant Puppet Project - Siem Reap", in the early evening of Saturday February 23rd an inclusive giant puppet parade will be the first event of the Siem Reap SPOTLIGHT Festival weekend activities. A highly inclusive event, participants include young people with physical disabilities in participation with Handicap International Belgium and disadvantaged children from the Green Gecko centre and Mith Samlanh. The workshops took place over three weeks at the provincial teacher training college and were led by British puppet master Jig Cochrane. The five giant puppets cover various themes and will be paraded through the streets of Siem Reap in the early evening of Saturday Feb 23rd.
Free admission
Epic Arts, in partnership with Handicap International Belgium present an evening of entertainment in the performance house of Raffles Grand Hotel D'Angkor. Performances are from groups including people with disabilities from around Cambodia such as Arupe, Epic Arts, Handicap International and Phare Ponleu Selpak. The joined Lao Bang Fai & inclusive hip hop crew will also perform at Sabai Sabai.
Handicap International Belgium, a non governmental organisation, started in the refugee camps on the Cambodian-Thai border in 1982. Originally working on the production of prosthetic devices for landmine victims, it has since broadened its activities to focus on the prevention of disabilities and on the improvement of life of all people with disabilities through their rehabilitation and socioeconomic reintegration, Handicap international's work in Cambodia nowadays encompasses the primary causes of physical disabilities: landmines and other ordnance, diseases that lead to disabilities and traffic accidents.
Free admission
The paintings generated during the pre-festival workshops in Siem Reap will be exhibited at The Art House and the Raffles Grand Hotel D'Angkor Royal Park.
British artist Sasha Constable & local artist Oun Sovann ran painting workshops for 8 young women with physical disabilities and 23 young people currently residing at the landmine museum near Banteay Srei in Siem Reap.
The results of these two workshops will be exhibited in The Art House gallery and also the grounds of Raffles Grand Hotel D'Angkor Royal park during the "Celebrating Differences" event on February 24th. This is the first opportunity that these young people have had in exploring their creativity through the medium of painting. The theme of the paintings were based on self portraiture and the participants lives and ambitions.
The Raffles Grand Hotel D'Angkor Royal Park (Saturday 23-24 February 2008)
Free admission
Local comic book artist, Em Satya has illustrated children's books, book covers, cartoons for Rasmei Kampuchea, as well as his own publications for decades. "Bopha Battambang", his first graphic novel was published in 2007. An exhibition of Satya's comic illustrations created since a stroke paralysed his drawing hand and he had to re-learn how to draw again will be exhibited at the Art House, Siem Reap together with paintings from the pre-festival workshops.
