Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Art: TranscenDance at Raffles Phnom Penh

Julie Gallerist
Jun 26
3 min read

Updated: 6 days ago

A story of cultural heritage, movement, and reconnection through the works of DinArt and Ramya Chuon

Sometimes, an exhibition feels like more than just an event. It feels like a spiritual journey. A quiet embrace. A long-awaited conversation with ancestral traditions.

That’s exactly what TranscenDance is.

Set within the timeless beauty of Raffles Hotel Le Royal in Phnom Penh, this exhibition is a quest to reconnect with ancient times — for the artists, for those who visit, and for anyone who’s ever felt the pull of heritage from afar.

Dance lies at the heart of humanity's oldest traditions. In their pursuit of the perfect gesture, apsara dancers have become an inexhaustible source of inspiration for those seeking to uncover the sacred meaning of life.

The apsaras are deeply woven into Khmer cultural memory. In the early 1900s, even Auguste Rodin was captivated by them — they became not only a muse but a profound aesthetic revelation. In the eyes of today’s artists, the slow, timeless movements of the apsaras become a universal language — one that speaks directly to the soul.

“Dance is the purest expression of every emotion, earthly and spiritual.” – Anna Pavlova

A Dialogue with DinArt

DinArt captures the soul’s elevation through the dancers' precise gestures, hinting at a transcendent grace. As though trying to escape earthly fate, his dancers seem to float — light, suspended, and free — transporting us to a dreamlike elsewhere.

With confident strokes and subtle textures, DinArt sublimates the art of dance, recreating the fluidity of movement as if time itself were stilled. His pieces — featuring apsaras — are a quiet reminder of the beauty that already surrounds us.

Alongside DinArt’s work is the remarkable Ramya Chuon, a French-Khmer artist who left Cambodia as a child and grew up in France. For years, she has carried two cultures within her — and like many in the diaspora, she has turned to art to make sense of that duality. Drawing and painting became her voice, her bridge, her lifeline to a country that lived more in memory than in everyday life.

Where Din grounds us in presence, Ramya explores the longing for return. In TranscenDance, her works hum beside DinArt’s, offering a visual duet: one voice anchoring in tradition, the other reaching inward. The result is quietly, profoundly moving.

Interview DinArt

Art of Reconnection

TranscenDance pays tribute to an art form that has survived the centuries — and risen from the ashes.

In their current expressions, contemporary Cambodian artists like Ramya and Din draw from deep cultural wells to symbolize the enduring power of apsara dance in a country undergoing rapid transformation. Through this exhibition, we see choreography and visual art intertwined — one medium supporting the other in a shared language of grace and meaning.

TranscenDance is, in many ways, a love letter to dancers. But it is written not with words, — but with brushstrokes, gestures, and soul.

A Space for Feeling

The setting — Raffles Le Royal — adds its own gentle grace. There’s something about walking through those elegant halls, the way light filters in, the way time seems to pause. It creates space — not just for art, but for reflection. For stillness.

This is not a loud exhibition. It doesn’t shout or dazzle. It listens. It breathes. It invites you to slow down and simply feel.

Why It Matters

For The Gallerist, TranscenDance is an opportunity to give space to stories that deserve to be heard — stories of cultural heritage, of identity, of ancestral art forms that transcend time and borders.

Come with an open heart. It might just speak to you in ways you didn’t expect.