Bounpaul Phothyzan

Once a painter known for landscapes, Bounpaul Phothyzan turned to conceptual and social practices after his studies in Thailand, interested less in perfecting techniques and more in interpreting layers of his environment. For the artist, the land, and what is below its surface, is part of us. Laos was one of the most heavily bombed countries worldwide and unexploded ordinances (UXOs) continue to threaten life on a daily basis. Dove House was created site-specifically in the artist’s parent’s garden in Champasak.  Made with cluster bomb shells harvested by villagers in Attapeu province on the Cambodian-Laos border, the installation quickly became a fixture of his home village, provoking spontaneous and ongoing sharing of war times. While the installation memorializes the emptying of villages during the war, it materializes the ongoing reality of living with UXOs today. In the artist’s words, “If I could tell my village’s stories through artwork, they would look like this.”