Somehow I was bringing a lot of materials for the workshops I had in mind for NomadiX, but I was lucky that my house is on the way to Kampot so the van picked me and all my stuff up at home. Off we went, a small bus full of fun people on their way from Phnom Penh to Kampot, talking non-stop! The NomadiX tour kicked off with artists-on-the-road Sao Sreymao, Neak Sophal and myself, in the coordinating care of Say Tola and with the generous assistance of Say Polin, Sor Ratana, Tomasz Cham and Kea Sakphearoth. We would join local artist Khun Gechsoun in Kampot where we set up camp for 4 days. Upon arrival, a first task was to record a trailer announcement while the sun was setting, with Wat Treuy Koh temple in the background. Tomasz was the director in charge and that was not an easy assignment but we got it right after 5 or 6 takes! He edited the film immediately after and even posted it before dinner. We got the idea of making stickers for the kids to write their names on. After designing the name tag, Sophal and I borrowed bicycles from the hostel to go to the local printing shop then another team building moment arose with us all together cutting the very creative yet labour intensive round-square name tags! The mosquitos were happy to join us in this task and in our bedroom, there were four cats trying to make little cats: 3 tomcats chasing 1 female cat! At NomadiX the numbers were inverted, all artists are women and the men are supporting our activities… the experience of collaborating in a very caring environment was indeed heartwarming!

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The day after, we woke up at 6.30, all set for doing 4 workshops with the kids from the Wat Treuy Koh School, between the ages of 9 till 12. Each of us artists introduced their workshop around photography, candle sculpting, drawing, wood cutting, printmaking and I proposed them crafting and creative exercises! We let the kids choose by themselves which workshop to follow and all of them were very engaged throughout the day. I could even do some [watch & wa/onder] exercises that make them experience their school environment differently and look at the materials lying around, more carefully: broken bricks, branches, plastics, strings, stones, leaves (I had to ask them to only pick up dead material, not rip off living plants)… all useful if you look at them in other ways. With the found materials, I asked them to build “visual poetry” whatever that may be for them. Most of the kids came up with very cool and quite creative constructions. Those who didn’t know what to create by themselves, I gave a brush so they can help paint the creations of other kids. It was nice to observe how some like to partner up with others and others like to work by themselves. I even started improvising with new techniques myself, inspired throughout the workshop! We finished before lunch and in the afternoon, a panel discussion was planned where we wanted to talk about specific topics. The rather young kids didn’t really have ears for that, so we started to ask them to share about their experiences during the workshops. It was nice to hear from them, they were full of energy. During the break before the performance of Epic Arts, I improvised some games to entertain the group of kids. Epic Arts is a group of performers with different abilities who sing and dance. Their performance was touching, entertaining and informative about the life of diffabled persons who do have the abilities to work, to marry and to be part of society. Afterwards, the kids could share their feelings and ask questions to the performers of Epic Arts. The film Rose of Bokor Mountain, was scheduled to be screened inside of the pagoda, but we felt that people might not know there is a film happening in there, so we came up with the idea to change the location and with the enthusiasm of our hostel owner, we created an open air cinema in front of the hostel! In that way, everyone passing by could feel welcome to join the film event. We also went knocking door to door to invite people to gather and see King Sihanouk’s film from 1969. A lot of locals joined, mostly elderly and kids came over with their snacks, drinks and extra chairs to see a film about a mountain from their area. It was nice to hear the villagers talk about the shifts in landscape that happened from that era till now. To the group of kids who stayed after the film, I offered them an extra surprise and we continued with a short animation film “Wonder” by Mirai Mizue: a poetic and colorful piece of cinematic art made with hand drawings! 

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The End for the program of that day! Quickly after, our crew found a local event to dance off the accumulated energy of that day and four of us stayed up late for a night swim and we even found a boat that served noodles at 4 am! Oops, 3 hours later, we were scheduled to set up the school exhibition with all works that the kids made! That went quite well after some short sleep… My group of kids couldn’t come for the exhibition because they were having exams that day, but other kids from the school came over to watch the exhibition and loved the works. I asked their teacher if these collaborative works could be kept in a place at the school. The teacher was happy with that idea and so his students paraded the works back to their classroom. It felt like a fashion show, carrying works on their head, around their body…  with a lot of pride and pleasure!  What a great way when everything falls into place! Mission accomplished… I enjoy how during NomadiX, there is space for improvisation to adapt the program, fitting it to everyone's flow and likings. In Kampot, we had time for a day-off and relax with our crew in nature with mangroves and fireflies. 

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