About this project
ABOUT THIS PROJECT
THE VANDERBILT REPUBLIC specializes in the execution of monumental ideas.
As defined by CAMBODIAN LIVING ARTS, a “MASTER” is an expert practitioner of Cambodia's performing arts. Only those who were working professionals before the genocide years may carry the title.
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From 1975-1979, the Khmer Rouge enslaved, tortured and killed over 1.7 million Cambodians in one of the most lethal regimes in history. During these brutal years, Pol Pot and his totalitarian party sought to silence and eradicate Cambodia’s artistic class by systematically hunting and murdering 90 percent of the country’s performing artists. The Khmer Rouge had a motto for their victims: “To keep you is no benefit. To destroy you is no loss.”
Today, the “Masters,” artists who survived this grim chapter of Cambodian history, are harnessing their final days sharing their craft with a new generation of students. They work to preserve what the Khmer Rouge failed to completely destroy—their extraordinary music, their remarkable stories. Cambodian Living Arts, an organization whose mission is “to support the revival of traditional Khmer performing arts and to inspire contemporary artistic expression” has the powerful vision that “by the year 2020, Cambodia will experience a cultural renaissance so dynamic that the arts will become the country’s international signature.”
The Vanderbilt Republic recognizes the international significance of this vision and has assembled a unique group of American creatives fully equipped to help CLA realize their vision. We believe it time to properly document the lives of these individuals in a manner their stories deserve, and in an approach that honors and celebrates their significance in our world.
We will create a powerful photographic portrait archive of each Cambodian Master, their art forms, and the next generation of students. We'll create this iconography using a film-based, large-format photographic process and develop multimedia applications to communicate the beauty of this cultural renaissance, worldwide. What will transpire is a beautiful story about the arts renaissance in Cambodia today.
With your support, we can make this ambitious goal a reality—and give you a piece of history.
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Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on October 3, 2009.
Pledge $5 or more
Exclusive access to the Kickstarter community-only pre-production blog.
Pledge $20 or more
Exclusive access to the Kickstarter community-only pre-production blog + supporter credit on VR website with link to URL of your choice.
Pledge $60 or more
All of the above + 1 original, signed sheet of Fuji FP-100c 4” x 5” instant film from the eventual shoot, in Cambodia. Each “Fujiroid” is wholly unique.
Pledge $75 or more
Admission for two to “Art From The Heart” on September 10th, 2009, at Calumet Photographic in New York City. Price of admission includes any one signed, unframed photograph in the show.
Pledge $100 or more
1 original large-format “Fujiroid” (Fuji FP-100c 4” x 5”) photograph, signed by both George Del Barrio and the portrait's subject, from the eventual shoot, in Cambodia. The subject of each “Fujiroid” is guaranteed to be one of Cambodia's few surviving Master performing artists + exclusive access to the Kickstarter community-only pre-production blog + supporter credit on VR website with link to URL of your choice.
Pledge $500 or more
Two VIP tickets to a post-shoot reception, hosted at ROOT [Brooklyn]. Meet and have drinks with the “Masters” location crew, see behind-the-scenes footage, and hear anecdotes and stories from the month-long shoot, in Cambodia.
Pledge $1,250 or more
A hand-bound book of 50 photographs from Cambodia, accordion-folded, custom-printed, with slip case. Photographs by George Del Barrio, hand bound by Hanna Vandenbulcke, designed by Dwayne Shaw, printed by Matthew Bogosian, with a foreword by Rico Blancaflor, and signed by all crew members. Limited for all time to an edition of 20.
Project By
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President + Creative Director of The Vanderbilt Republic. Born in Queens, NY in 1976.
