Khmer Rouge Museum
Exhibition #03: The Jungle
Software: Rhinoceros 3D / V-Ray / Photoshop
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
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This is the third exhibition in a series of three for a museum concept titled Khmer Rouge: A Journey Through Tragedy, A Search for Hope which follows the rise and fall of communism in Cambodia in the 1970’s.
In the four years that the Khmer Rouge communist party ruled Cambodia, it was responsible for one of the worst mass killings of the 20th Century. French for “Red Cambodians”, the party was formed in 1968 but didn’t become prominent until 1975. Through execution, starvation, disease, and forced labor, the Khmer Rouge systematically killed an estimated two million Cambodians, almost a fourth of the country’s population at the time. Today, the period is often referred to as “The Killing Fields”.
EXPULSION OF THE REFUGEES - YEAR 1979
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After the defeat of the Khmer Rouge by Vietnamese troops, thousands of civilians fled war-torn Cambodia to the Thai border. The refugee camps swelled in number, and lacking the support from the international community to handle such a situation, the Thai government responded by conducting a brutal forced repatriation of the Cambodian people. An estimated 45,000 refugees were forced at gunpoint to climb down the mountain’s landmine studded jungle back into Cambodia. 13,000 lost their lives in the explosions.
DESIGN
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The Jungle Room is an enclosed greenhouse built on top of the cliffs of Preah Vihear Mountain. The vaulted glass windows allow for an intermingling view between the indoor area, and the vast landscape and blue skies outside.
Composed of tiered platforms, curved staircases, lush greenery, and rising cliffside walls, this space emulates the mountain on which the refugees were abandoned. Visitors can gape down into the treacherous heights that the refugees were forced to descend. As they climb their way through the space, they are recounted the stories of the thousands of refugees who were abandoned to die on the mountainside with no food and no tools for survival.
There is an emphasis on natural materials within this space. Tall rock cliffs compose two major walls. The room is dotted through with informational pylons made of natural wood boards. While nature can be beautiful, it is also ruthless. As viewers move through this “controlled” space, they can contemplate what it must be like to be lost in a sprawling “uncontrolled” wilderness with no signs of rescue as they look upon the mountain outside.
