Le sortilège des marins.

Influenced by the writings of Marguerite Duras, Aurélia Frey wishes to highlight the omnipresence of water in Cambodia and Vietnam. This intriguing and exciting subject of water, the bearer of life and death, had already been present in the artist’s practice namely with her project “Les Sortilèges des Marins” where she presents certain photographs, completed by the beginning of her residency work in Cambodia as part of La Route des Résidences. Establishing a subtle link between literature, painting and photography, she looks at light and its effects to invent poetic spaces.

A graduate of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Photographie (ENSP) in Arles, France, Aurélia Frey sees her career punctuated by the discovery of new countries: she has worked in Egypt, Norway, Iceland and traveled for five months the Qhapac Nan, Inca trails on the border of Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru among others. The photographer-author has participated in numerous residencies, including Casa Velázquez in Madrid. Her work has been exhibited in internationally in venues such as the Natural History Museum, Cairo and in France at Château de Tours and Manifesto Festival in Toulouse.

She will take part in two residencies : La Route des Résidences (with the support of the French Institute Paris and the “La Petite Escalère” endowment fund, from October 15, 2023 to January 6, 2024

The Villa Marguerite Duras

This writing residency program welcomes 3 authors in residence each year, for a maximum duration of 12 weeks. This writing residency helps to strengthen IFC’s support for writing, translation and publishing, already committed to partners such as Sipar and the Cambodia Book Fair. The objective is to encourage the emergence of a new dynamic around writing, in line with today's Cambodia, and to amplify the local emergence of the editorial sector, for better influence both of French culture and language. Defending and supporting books, France's leading cultural industry, indeed constitutes a real educational and intercultural challenge, in a country where the majority of the population is under 30 years old.

Villa Saigon

Interdisciplinary residency program, Villa Saigon has welcomed artists from all backgrounds since 2018: choreographers, painters, sculptors, musicians, architects, authors... During residencies lasting a maximum of 12 weeks, 8 to 10 artists develop projects each year relating to Vietnam, articulated to the local scene. These residencies allow the crossing of ideas, people and disciplines; the result is a residency exit event, inviting the general Vietnamese public to meet the French artist and discover his work. Vietnamese artists are also regularly selected to travel to France, thanks to the “Réciprocité” program of Villa Saigon – IFV.