Magali An Berthon

My dissertation investigates the definition of silk as intangible heritage, from raw material, craft practice to national production since the early 1990s in the light of the country's twentieth-century political upheavals. The practice was interrupted with the Khmer Rouge regime and has now recovered, coping with subsequent loss in skills transmission and raw material production. I intend to provide a holistic approach, creating a polyphony that combines voices from the present and the past: makers, consumers, key players in the industry, materials, textile objects in museum collections, techniques, and records of historical events. The overarching theme of my research is the dynamics of silk farming and weaving skills transmission, how knowledge has been perpetuated despite past trauma and contemporary issues of drastic social and economic shifts in a post-conflict country. Furthermore it will be an exploration of how producing and wearing silk play a role in the transmission of Cambodian culture, which narratives are associated with silk crafts as a living heritage, and how silk textiles are means to embrace a Cambodian identity in times of globalisation.