Phnom Penh, Nov 28 (IANS) As some 200 artists and media practitioners gathered here for the week-long Mekong Arts Festival, their attention has gone far beyond “art for art’s sake”. What they are advocating is how to promote arts as a catalyst for social change.
Through workshops, performances, forums, conferences, film shows and visual arts, these artists from the Mekong sub-region, which is composed of Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, showcased their understanding of life in the era of globalisation.

Phare Ponleu Selpak (PPS), one of the organisers from the host country, has demonstrated the vigour and power of youth art as a life-transforming force.

PPS, meaning “the brightness of art” in Khmer, originated in 1989 from a refugee camp on the Thai border, when child refugees were encouraged to use art to overcome the trauma of war. After the refugees returned to their homeland, the idea of creative workshops persisted and a group of these child refugees founded PPS in 1994, a Xinhua report said.

Today, PPS, a Cambodian non-governmental organisation which is involved in community development by providing social, educational and cultural services to children and their families, has also opened its doors to youth who want to pursue their artistic instincts by admitting them to its Visual Arts School, Performing Arts School and Music School.

Its iconic circus groups are renowned and have been performing in Cambodia and Europe and nurturing an independent generation capable of supporting themselves while exemplifying their strength.

“Art is a powerful tool for children to develop their confidence,” said Khun Det, the founder of PPS. He believes that visual arts and culture are more effective than speech. He regards PPS circus as “social circus” which combines the elements of theatre, music and tradition.

Zhang Jinzhong, an ethnic Jingpo dancer from Nengguan Performing Arts and Training Centre in Ruili, the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan, has been spreading health education through dance for the last four years, helping the youth learn folk dance, rap or modern dance and motivating them to stay away from drugs and HIV.

“None of the students had any dancing background. I teach them whatever dance they fancy, and offer health knowledge at intervals. As they learn some dancing skills from the centre, the youths also start to care for their own community and the reality around them,” said Zhang.

Yang Kun, a visual anthropologist and one of the founding members of Yunfest — a documentary film festival in Yunnan — reflected on the participatory visual education project launched by Yunfest.

The project, which aims to train villagers with basic digital video (DV) camera skills, has seen some original works from the trainees after they go back and start shooting on the issues of their interest.

The film “Glacier” — a brain child of Tibetan trainee Zhaxi Nima — tells the story of holy mountain Kawagebo in the Deqin region of northwest Yunnan, which has seen its glaciers receding over the years as a consequence of tourism and global warming.

“Tibetan villagers’ love for a natural environment as shown in the film is far ahead of western environmentalists, but the message was rarely picked up by the mass media,” he added.

After it was shown in some Tibetan villages, people have gone even further and set up their own NGO and websites for research on their own culture and tradition as well as organising a Kawagebo culture festival.

“These direct, powerful, moving images could help urban people view the world in a different light, hence narrowing the gap of urban-rural understanding,” said Yang.

During the festival, such modern art stories abound. A Thai artist moved towards theatre to attract young audiences and help them relate to the reality of child labour and trafficking; Khanda Arts and Theatre Company combines street interviews and statistics on HIV/AIDS with its dance “For a Little Less Noise Mae Nam”; Myanmar and Lao artists endeavour to preserve their traditional puppet theatre.

“We hope they (children and youths) would be a force for change when they get back to their own community,” said Chen Shu, communications officer for the China office of Save the Children UK, another organiser of the five-day event which began Monday.

Indeed, as more people are inspired with the festival coming to an end Friday, it’s only a prelude for a greater transformation of people’s lives in the region.