Archives of Perpetration: Collaborative Workshop at Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

In September, Susanne Knittel travelled to Phnom Penh, Cambodia to participate as one of the instructors in the workshop Archives of Perpetration. The workshop was organized by Stéphanie Benzaquen, Anne-Laure Porée and the Center for Khmer Studies in collaboration with the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and Bophana Audio Visual Center.

Earlier this year, the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (TSGM) was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List, following the earlier inclusion of its S-21 Archive in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register. The S-21 Archive, a collection of documents and photographs, as well as textiles and other material traces from the Khmer Rouge prison known as S-21, serves both as crucial evidence of mass crimes and as the final trace of countless victims. It raises profound ethical and methodological questions about representation, evidence, and the role of archives in post-conflict societies.

In this context, the ten-day workshop brought together students, scholars, artists, and museum professionals. Instructors Keo Duong, Kim Hak, Moeung Meta, Stéphanie Benzaquen-Gautier, Susanne Knittel, and Anne-Laure Porée guided participants through site visits, archival research, and the creation of exhibition proposals inspired by the S-21 Archive.

The workshop culminated in a public exhibition entitled „Beyond Emotion?”. The exhibition presents a moving meditation on the relationship between emotion and understanding and what role the archive plays in this dynamic interaction. We worked with a broad, relational, and embodied conception of archive: documents, objects, textiles, buildings, but also trees, soil, and the landscape at a particular site, reflecting on the relationship between archive and repertoire (gestures, practices, traditions etc.).

The exhibition will be on display at three memorial sites: TSGM, Choeung Ek Genocidal Center, and the M-13 prison site.

Images courtesy of the Center for Khmer Studies and Susanne Knittel.