Editor’s note: Chath pierSath invited me to join him in London for the premier of his collaborative work with Kutluğ Ataman but it was impossible for me to come. Without experiencing the performance, I relied on the excellent web coverage to describe the work. After studying the resources and working with Chath, I regret my inability to experience the installation. Snow White has clearly placed pierSath on the world stage of performance art. Please see Magical Cambodia’s other articles discussing Chath pierSath’s art and poetry. – Jinx Davis
In November and December 2024, London audiences were introduced to a significant and thought-provoking performance, ‘Snow White.’ This compelling collaborative work by Turkish artist Kutluğ Ataman and Cambodian-born artist Chath pierSath, hosted at Niru Ratnam Gallery, delved into pierSath’s harrowing experiences during the Cambodian Civil War. The performance intertwined personal narrative with the broader political history of Cambodia, offering a unique and profound exploration of trauma and identity.
“Snow White” is a unique exploration of trauma and identity. PierSath, in a confined space resembling a small room constructed from unstretched canvas, some of which is painted, crafts small puppets from the scattered material, symbolizing his family and the traumatic events he endured. This intimate setting amplifies the intensity of his recollections, offering viewers a visceral experience of his journey through survival and loss.
The performance of ‘Snow White’ is a deliberate rejection of the fairy tale narrative. PierSath oscillates between identifying with various characters and historical figures, ultimately challenging and rejecting the fairy tale narrative. This approach underscores the complexity of personal identity amidst national trauma, highlighting the enduring impact of historical events on individual lives.
Ataman’s direction ensures that “Snow White” is not merely a recounting of past horrors but a powerful statement on the persistence of trauma and the necessity of confronting uncomfortable histories. The performance stands in stark contrast to sanitized portrayals of war, compelling audiences to acknowledge the ongoing presence of these traumas in the lives of survivors.
Alongside “Snow White,” Ataman presented “fff” (2009), a ten-screen installation that initially premiered at the Whitechapel Gallery. This work features home movies from two English families shot in the 1950s and 1960s, accompanied by ten different scores composed by Michael Nyman. The resulting montage presents memory as fragmented and reconstructed, offering a poignant exploration of personal and collective histories.
“Snow White” is a powerful example of the potential of collaborative performance art. Through the combined talents of Ataman and pierSath, the piece offers a profound meditation on identity, trauma, and the enduring effects of historical events. Its premiere in London marks a significant contribution to contemporary art, inviting audiences to engage deeply with the narratives of survival and resilience.
Kutluğ Ataman is one of the most influential contemporary artists in Turkey. He is known for his groundbreaking contributions to video art, film, and multimedia installations. His work has shaped the Turkish art scene and gained international recognition for exploring identity, trauma, and the complexities of human experience. Ataman’s approach often blends storytelling with visual art, using his distinctive narrative style to address themes of cultural, political, and personal significance.
Ataman’s art often challenges the boundaries of traditional media, incorporating elements of documentary and fiction to create works that feel personal and universal. His fascination with the intersection of history and identity is evident in much of his oeuvre. He delves into the complexities of the human condition, using visual language to question how society constructs individual and collective identities.
His notable works include “Koca” (1999). This project delves into the fragmented nature of memory and identity through the lens of a transgender individual’s experience in Turkish society and “Veya” (2003), a film exploring the tensions between personal desires and societal expectations. These works solidified his reputation as an artist capable of tackling Turkey’s most pressing cultural and social issues with depth and sensitivity.
In addition to his video and film works, Ataman is recognized for his immersive installations. He frequently uses multimedia to explore how personal stories intertwine broader social and political contexts. This is seen in his critically acclaimed installation “fff” (2009), where he utilizes home movies to explore themes of memory and nostalgia, as well as his most recent collaboration, Snow White, with Chath pierSath.
Ataman’s influence in Turkey’s art scene extends beyond his individual work. As a pioneering figure in the development of contemporary Turkish art, he has helped elevate the visibility of Turkish artists on the global stage. His work challenges the international art community to rethink its understanding of Turkish culture, providing a bridge between the East and the West while simultaneously asserting Turkey’s position within the global narrative of contemporary art.
His participation in significant international exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale and Documenta, and numerous accolades have solidified his standing as a central figure in contemporary art in Turkey and worldwide. Through his innovative approach, Ataman continues to shape the future of art by encouraging critical engagement with complex socio-political issues, thus contributing to the ongoing dialogue surrounding identity, memory, and the legacies of historical trauma.
In “Snow White,” Ataman’s work, in collaboration with Chath pierSath, further pushes the boundaries of art and performance. He continues his mission to engage with deeply personal and poignant themes while challenging the viewer to confront brutal truths. His unique ability to blend visual art with personal storytelling remains one of his most significant contributions to Turkish and global art scenes.
Chath pierSath, a Cambodian-born artist and writer, uses his work to poignantly explore the harrowing impact of the Khmer Rouge regime on his own life and the broader Cambodian community. As a survivor of one of the most brutal genocides of the 20th century, pierSath’s artistic and literary contributions provide a profound insight into the human experience of trauma, loss, and survival. His art and writings serve as a powerful testament to the transformative power of art, resilience, memory, and the ongoing struggle for healing and understanding in the aftermath of historical atrocities.
Chath pierSath, born in Cambodia in 1972, experienced the political upheaval that led to the rise of the Khmer Rouge and the subsequent genocide. At the tender age of seven, the Khmer Rouge took control of Cambodia, leading to the deaths of an estimated two million people. His family was directly affected by the regime, and pierSath himself was displaced, losing both of his parents and enduring the horrors of forced labor and the constant threat of death. His journey from these harrowing experiences to becoming an influential artist is a testament to his courage and resilience.
After the fall of the Khmer Rouge in 1979, pierSath relocated to the US as a refugee, where he began to reconstruct his life. His experience as a survivor and immigrant profoundly influences his artistic and literary endeavors, offering an authentic voice to the global conversation about the lingering effects of war and political violence.
As an artist, pierSath works across multiple mediums, including performance, visual arts, and sculpture, but his most striking works often incorporate storytelling and personal narrative elements. Much of his art reflects his ongoing journey to come to terms with his past and the trauma that continues to haunt him. In his performances, like Snow White, pierSath weaves his personal memories into broader historical contexts, exploring how individuals, families, and communities cope with the aftermath of genocide and displacement.
His use of puppetry, such as in Snow White, is particularly notable for its symbolic depth. PierSath often creates small, fragile figures representing his family members or his lost childhood, each representing the complex relationship between personal memory and the broader political and social forces at play. His works often reflect the precariousness of identity, the fragility of memory, and the scars of historical violence.
In addition to his visual and performance art, Chath pierSath is an accomplished writer. His writing is a testament to the importance of memory and storytelling in healing from collective trauma.
PierSath’s writing is notable for its raw emotional depth and its unflinching portrayal of the suffering caused by the Khmer Rouge regime. His accounts of life under the regime are not just personal memories but a more extensive reflection on how history is remembered and represented, particularly in post-conflict societies. The book has been widely praised for its ability to bring attention to the often-overlooked voices of survivors, contributing to the global discourse on human rights, memory, and reconciliation.
For pierSath, art serves as both testimony and a means of healing. His works encourage reflection on how past trauma continues to shape the present. Through his visual art or writing, pierSath underscores the importance of confronting painful histories as a personal catharsis and an essential step toward reconciliation and understanding in post-genocide societies.
In his collaboration with Kutluğ Ataman on Snow White, pierSath brings his intimate understanding of trauma and survival to the stage, blending performance and art to explore themes of identity, memory, and the political forces that shape personal experience. His poignant contributions to the project reflect his ongoing commitment to using his art as a vehicle for remembrance and dialogue.
Chath pierSath’s contributions to the art world are both culturally significant and deeply personal. His work bridges the gap between personal history and collective memory, offering a powerful voice to the Cambodian diaspora and to all survivors of genocide. Through his art and literature, pierSath ensures that the stories of those affected by the Khmer Rouge are not forgotten, and he continues to push the boundaries of what art can achieve in terms of personal and collective healing.
His work in both art and literature, remains a critical resource for understanding the Cambodian experience and the broader impacts of war and trauma. As an artist, pierSath’s legacy will undoubtedly continue to inspire those who seek to understand the intersections of memory, identity, and history.
The fairy-tale of Snow White becomes a loose structuring device as pierSath retells his story slipping between identifications with the characters and historical subjects as well as how he identifies and ultimately rejects the fairytale. The experience of watching pierSath is discomforting as he seems at times overwhelmed by both his surroundings as well as the memories that he evokes. It is a strong antidote to the tidied up and presentable accounts of war trauma that are common in the western world. In these accounts, from aid agencies, news reports, social media warriors and celebrities with a cause, ‘victims’ of war crimes and trauma are passive ciphers to be first pitied, then perhaps funded by aid and then finally ignored as the west turns its gaze to the next non-western catastrophe. That historical actions by western nations largely lie at the root of those problems tends to be ignored. pierSath’s searing testimony insists on the presentness of those traumas, the fact that they cannot simply be tidied away. These are histories that are still alive in the present day, inexorably in the lives of survivors.
Ataman will also be exhibiting his ten-screen work ‘fff’ (2009) in the ground floor gallery, a work that originally premiered at the Whitechapel Gallery. The title of an abbreviation of ‘found family footage’, and the work consists of images drawn from the collection of home movies of two English families shot in the 1950s and 1960s. A set of ten different scores composed by Michael Nyman accompanies each of the ten films which are of different lengths so that each score falls out of sync with each other as the work progresses. The result is a complex montage of images and music where memory is presented as both fragmented, contradictory and re-constructed by both subject and other.
‘fff’ might at first be understood as an elegiac work made up of quintessentially English vignettes from a seeming lost age. However, Ataman’s viewpoint is that of an outsider looking in; born in Turkey the artist made London his home in the early part of the twenty-first century before returning to Turkey in 2012. The two families that we see in ‘fff’ always remain at a distance to the viewer, an effect that is heightened by Nyman’s soundtracks that never resolve themselves.
Together ‘Snow White’ and ‘fff’ ask questions about what it is to consider the pasts of ourselves and others, and how intertwined questions of individual identities are bound up with the nations, cultures and localities that shape us. Each work gestures at the impossibility of arriving at a resolution, of reconciling our pasts with our precarious present.

