Chen Dam Daek Project: Grassroots Placemaking in Phnom Penh
03 pm — 05 pm, Sat 23 Aug 2025
Ném Space
18/1 Ngô Thời Nhiệm, District 3, HCMC
Registration link (maximum 30 people)
From the organizer:
What makes a neighbourhood a community—where each person has a space of their own, yet shares in a sense of collective belonging? Join artist-curator Vuth Lyno from Phnom Penh as he shares his work on the Chen Dam Daek Project, where he and his collaborators experimented with grassroots placemaking to imagine the future of a neighbourhood undergoing rapid urban transformation.
Chen Dam Daek, meaning “Chinese Blacksmiths,” is one of Phnom Penh’s oldest village communities that is anchored around a religious “triangle” comprising a Buddhist pagoda, a Chinese temple, and a Catholic church. Following the war and demographic shifts of the 1980s and 1990s, driven by post-conflict displacement, urban migration policies, and influx from rural areas, the area saw informal occupation and adaptive reuse of these religious and heritage spaces by new residents.
About the Chen Dam Daek Project
The Chen Dam Daek Project, part of the Southeast Asia Neighbourhoods Network (SEANNET), explores grassroots efforts in shaping a Phnom Penh’s neighbourhood named Chen Dam Daek and connects it to broader city-making processes. The project strives to support the meaning of សហគមន៍ Sahakum (community): “journey together.” It seeks to walk alongside Chen Dam Daek’s residents in determining the present and future of their neighbourhood. The project centres the residents in a cyclical process of education, research, and practice. Chen Dam Daek is a unique neighbourhood with historical religious architectures entangled with bottom-up urbanism practice.
About the speaker Vuth Lyno
Vuth Lyno is an artist, curator, and educator interested in space, cultural history, and knowledge production. His works often engage with micro and overlooked histories, notions of community, place-making, and the production of social relations. As an artist, he works across various media, often constructing architectural or spatial installations as situations for interaction. Lyno is Co-Convenor of Chen Dam Daek Project, a case study of grassroots neighbourhood-making in Phnom Penh. He was also Co-Founder and Director of Sa Sa Art Projects, a 15 years’ initiative supporting the development of contemporary visual arts in Cambodia. Lyno holds a Master of Art History from the State University of New York, Binghamton, New York, a Fulbright Fellowship (2013-15), and a Master of International Development from RMIT University, Melbourne, supported by the Australian Endeavour Award (2008-2009).
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