Vatey Tan
solo
Visual Artist | Installation maker | Designer
Vatey Tan
Since 2003, I have been creating art and constructing art installations, paint murals and working with community with concerns for the decline of our eco-systems.
read more
Sinta Wibowo
artist duo
Festivalmaker | Cultural Strategist
Sinta Wibowo
Since 2017, Sinta & I have been an artist duo that explores [consensual art] via different series such as [re-enacting memories] and [watch & wa/onder]
read more
tiSamjort
artist collective
Artist Collective | Shared Studio | Residency Space
tiSamjort collective
Since 2020, tiSamjort(Resting Place) is a Phnom Penh-based collaborative work space, gallery and short-term residence for artists and cultural practitioners.
read more
Vatey Tan, born in Phnom Penh in 1992, is an interdisciplinary artist and designer who works with playful and poetic curiosity. She creates art installations, abstract paintings, sculptures and creative book designs, drawing inspiration from her life experiences and what surrounds her.
Her work has been presented in solo shows and group exhibitions, art fairs and festivals in Cambodia and internationally. In 2003, at just 11 years old, Vatey received the Foreign Minister's Award at Japan's 33rd International Children's Art Exhibition and was the 3rd runner-up in Thailand's Art on AIDS Competition in 2013. In 2024, Vatey teamed up with Dahlia Phirun for a duo exhibition of 73 pieces with 3 co-created paintings and they opened this unique show with a live painting on a cake as canvas as another experimentation of "consensual art": Usually people cannot touch the artworks but here people can taste it and become part of the artwork they smuggle out of the galleries in their bellies. Shifting sense and relationalities, changing art conventions.
The year 2017 marked a turning point for her through the "Mutual Unknown" project, initiated by the Goethe Institute with an experimental exhibition at National Gallery of Indonesia, where she met Sinta Wibowo. Together, they initiated the series [re-enacting memories] with iterations at the Europalia Festival in Brussels, Museum MACAN in Jakarta, Sa Sa Art Projects in Phnom Penh and [watch & wa/onder] a series of walkshops in Indonesia, China, Japan and Cambodia.
Vatey has participated in numerous artist residencies, including Sa Sa Bassac, Vermont Studio Center (US), Newfoundland (Belgium) and Washi Plus (Japan). She has been part of panel and artist talks at Asia Society, Asian Cultural Council in New York, OCAC in Taipei and Largo Curation Center in Takamatsu. In 2023, she was invited to create a solo exhibition [continuity] for Cambodian Living Arts' 25th anniversary with her artworks as part of their permanent collection. Vatey was also one of the facilitators of Perspectives from the Grassroots at Mekong Cultural Hub's Meeting Point in Hanoi, as well as for Youth Learning Camp of Door to Asia. In 2020, Vatey co-initiated tiSamjort art space in Phnom Penh and continues to play a vital role in a variety of creative projects.
Sinta Wibowo lives and works between Europe, South-East Asia & occasionally other regions and also forms an artist duo with Vatey since 2017. Having studied economics & marketing, she works with artists, collectives, projects, festivals and art institutions in the field of performing arts, film, visual arts and music, out of her interest to bring people of all walks of life together. As a festivalmaker, cultural strategist, artistic coordinator & consultant, Sinta looks up experimentation in research, discourse & methodology and aspires to give more body to inclusion, outreach & diversity, by encouraging collaborations, partnerships & friendships. Attracted by the "power of poetics" in life, Sinta works with flow and gets excited by multiplying meaning meandering out of our minds to explore more ways of seeing and being.
A key moment of change in her working style was the Sideways Walking Arts Festival in 2012, where everyone was invited to explore ‘pathways’ on foot and be part of an itinerant artistic laboratory. Those experiences inspired different exploratory projects like [re-enacting memories], a series of live exhibitions and [watch & wa/onder], a series of walkshops, Sinta initiated with TAN Vatey as part of their collective research around [consensual art] since 2017. Two avenues of experimentations around the conventions in the arts, where they playfully explore an endless variety of relationalities in the world. The artist duo considers the arts as the Research & Development department of our societies where their initiative foremost want to facilitate moments of togetherness & trust. Setting out for the unknowns while moving with everyone and everything around, the duo has been exploring what [consensual art] all can be, where magic & healing can appear too!
Sinta has been teaming up with a variety of artists and an eclectic series of festivals, projects and art institutions since 1997 and still enjoying that line of work.
tiSamjort (“Resting Place”) is a Phnom Penh-based collaborative work space, gallery, and short-term residence for artists and cultural practitioners. Founded in 2020 by three visual artists and one culture lover, Sreymao Sao, Sophal Neak, Vatey Tan and Tola Say and from 2024, Sereyrath Mech joins the collective.
We envision tiSamjort as a resting place and a meeting space in Cambodia’s capital where people can learn, make art, and feel at home through collective engagement with the arts.
tiSamjort was born out of love for the arts and care for cultural practitioners. We began to recognize a need for a resting place for artists in Phnom Penh after initiating our first project, Nomadix Arts Tour, which brought arts programming to provincial communities throughout Cambodia.
When meeting with artists and cultural practitioners in different parts of the country, we commonly heard that some of these cultural enthusiasts have encountered practical and financial barriers to come to join the art seminars, workshops and cultural events which have always been held in the capital. Though we had long hoped to launch a collaborative work space for artists in Phnom Penh, these conversations led us to dream bigger, and to imagine how we might alleviate some of the financial burden for artists seeking to travel from provincial Cambodia into the capital.
By creating tiSamjort, we want to encourage provincial artists to not give up, and to know that they have a home in Phnom Penh, as well as a place where friendship, creativity, art-related discussion and inspiration can be found. More than that, it is a place for Phnom Penh folks to gather, create new works and share them with people in their communities.
Co-Founders of tiSamjort
SAY Tola : Project Manager/Producer
NEAK Sophal: Photographer
TAN Vatey: interdisciplinary artist and designer
SAO Sreymao: Visual artist