On May 1, 2013, a parachute from the Vietnam War, transformed by Cambodian artist Leang Seckon into an emblem of reconciliation, was the centerpiece of a public peace gathering and procession at Columbia University involving Vietnamese and Cambodian survivors of that war as well as U.S. veterans. The gathering helped inspire an article about the Season of Cambodia festival published on the site, Blouin Artinfo. To read the article, please follow the link below: Season of Cambodia Festival Explores Themes of Forgiveness and Renewal 
Additional photos taken at the event can be viewed on our Facebook page. Official Press Release: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE The Flowering Parachute Skirt: Gathering and Procession At the Maison Française, Columbia University, Buell Hall (on lawn east of Buell) Wednesday, May 1, 2013, 5 p.m. CONTACT: Shanny Peer, Director of Columbia's Maison Française; 212-854-4482; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it NEW YORK, April 26, 2013 – A parachute from the Vietnam War, transformed by Cambodian artist Leang Seckon into an emblem of reconciliation, will be the centerpiece of a public peace gathering involving Vietnamese and Cambodian survivors of that war as well as U.S. veterans at Columbia University on May 1 at 5 p.m. The event will take place at 5 p.m. on the lawn outside Buell Hall and is open to the public. The parachute, which fell to earth in Seckon’s village during the U.S. bombing of Cambodia, has been repurposed into a moveable sculpture, Flowering Parachute Skirt, and decorated with flowers cut from sarongs from his home village as well as from fabrics given by the Cambodian-American community in the Bronx – turning it into the skirt of a fantastical soldier figure. | 
