interview with GRETA KITE-GILMOUR

today we have the awesome greta kite-gilmour  in interview. i met her in spring 2014 in this beautiful town kampot in cambodia, while i was working there on a project and an exhibition, she was traveling through. later i went to pnomh penh and met her again by accident. we spend a great day exploring the city, watching the movie same same but different  in cinema, talked about our life goals and travel experiences. now, after almost one year i ask her again how life goes. here you see what she is doing now.

hello greta, tell me more about yourself! 

i was born in canberra, australia but moved to melbourne after university. so much more happening there in the art and music scene!

at the moment i’m the co-founder of MILK magazine, a cambodia-wide bilingual art/music/culture magazine, and the managing editor of the advisor, an arts, music, events newspaper based in phnom penh.

 

cambodia is that wonderful country where we first met, while working and travelling in kampott. tell me about your travels! wich places did you live in or travel to? 

oooh, travel? that might take a while! i started travelling when i was about 11 with my family. we went to europe: england, france, austria, germany and italy. i guess that sparked a fascination and love of travelling which has never really gone away. when i finished university i visited my parents who were living in manhattan, new york. i stayed there for quite some time.

when i was 22 i traveled pretty extensively through europe on my own. similar places to the first time, but a very different experience being 10 years older, with the addition of spain and a more extensive period in the south of italy – probably my favourite area in the world. since then i’ve tried to travel every year.

next was south america, where i had the best new year’s eve ever partying with friends i made in uruguay, then hiked down through patagonia in argentina with my brother. we drank from icy glacial rivers and got lost in the most amazing, tangibly spiritual forest. i also met one of my best friends there, who i remain in contact with today despite living in opposite ends of the world.

last year i went travelling with a friend in south east asia, i learnt to dive in myanmar, lived in the peaceful creative province of pai in thailand, had a pretty self-awakening experience in laos and finally settled in kampot, cambodia where i lived for most of the year and founded MILK magazine with my business partner, eve watling. in january this year, i moved to phnom penh and also began working at the advisor. i don’t see myself wanting to budge any time soon – this place is like jewels buried deep beneath the ground – once you dig a bit and dust it off, there’s a certain beauty and raw appeal like no other place i’ve experienced.

 

we were siting in phnom phen and talking about how life treats us and our plans for the future. it has been such a beautiful exchange! now you are living there, how do your days look like?

when i’m not writing in the office or in a cafe, i’m usually contacting or interviewing artists, attending events or designing layout for a new issue of MILK magazine with eve. for fun, i love going out and meeting new, interesting people, which is always possible here, or going to a party or a music event. also just simple catch-ups with friends over dinner or lunch, reading, listening to music, and i’m really loving the ukulele too – i teach myself and practice songs to chill out often.

it’s funny writing about things i do for fun because i actually think my job really falls under that. i get a stupid amount of joy just waking up in the morning and going to my favourite cafe, holing myself up and writing or speaking with artists online about what they’re up to. it’s work, sure, but i love it. i’ve slowly begun to realise since being here that a lot of the smaller things in life are what really makes me happy – finding new music that i love, my first coffee of the morning, walking down my street in the morning alongside the tiny children holding hands on the way to school, waking up early and watching the sun light up the city, being around my friends… nothing too grandiose or exciting, but somehow so contenting.

 

oh i can totally capture the children walking to school, the smell of those little food stalls and morning street scenes, this is what i loved while traveling in the kingdom, experiencing just pur life! do you have a life motto?

my personal motto in life has been the same since my mum taught it to me as a small child: this too shall pass. i recently got it tattooed on my left calf actually (my first tattoo!). i love it. it’s a really old saying, which apparently originated from an ancient sufi poet, but which has since been incorporated into, or at least reflected in, traditional buddhist teachings.

it basically refers to the fact that everything in life is transient: don’t get too upset about the negative things that you may be experiencing, as they will not last. at the same time, enjoy the positive things, as they will change too. i love it. it’s a really good way to remember to be present and mindful, which is something i find living in cambodia helps me to do as well. it’s hard to get hung up on too many negative things that may have happened to you or to try to hold on to positive things that might be happening to you, for that matter. everything here changes so rapidly, you sort of just learn to flow with it as it does. it’s a nice way to be!

 

oh wow, totally true words! now we know you a little more, let´s talk more about your project: MILK magazine. what is it about?

MILK magazine is a bi-monthly, bilingual (khmer and english) print magazine conceived in july 2014. it covers emerging or “underground” music and art projects, predominantly within cambodia, but with an international scope. the aim of the magazine is to provide young local, expat and travelling readers with beautiful, inspiring content that encourages more unique art and music to be discovered and created.

how or why did you get the idea to start it?

while traveling through south east asia last year, i came across many creative, mostly young individuals and groups who were beginning to reach out and experiment with art and music. particularly in cambodia, i became incredibly interested, some might say obsessed, with this emerging contemporary art/music culture, partly due to the horrific recent history of the country, whereby hundreds of thousands were brutally murdered in the khmer rouge. artists were targeted, resulting in a generation that followed which was almost completely devoid of art and music of any kind, either due to an enculturated fear associated with it, or because there simply were so few artists/musicians remaining after the genocide. now, what we’re seeing is a whole new, younger generation of local khmer artists and musicians who are beginning to rebuild and redefine the cultural scene before our very eyes. it’s an exciting time to be here and watch as it all unravels. milk should be considered not as a means to “help” or “rescue” anyone or anything here. that’s not its purpose. we instead consider it to be a method by which to collate and showcase what’s happening out there in a visually aesthetic, accessible medium.

 

how big is the team working on it and where is  MILK magazine available?

at the moment, our core team members are made up of myself, eve watling (co-founder and co-editor) and jonas de schrijver (advertising manager). we have regular writers, however, though these change a little each issue depending on who is available to write and who pitches stories that fit with the content of that issue.

the magazine is currently distributed in phnom penh, where most of our magazines – about 3000 – are delivered over two months to a range of cafes, galleries, resorts, skate shops, bars and other specialty stores. the rest go to kampot, battambang and siem reap. we aim to expand and increase this circulation over the next year, distributing to other points across southeast asia. all of our magazines are free for now.

 

what is your vision or mission with MIILK magazine?

we really just want readers of all ages, genders and cultures – anyone who picks it up – to be inspired by, and engaged in, the content. it would be amazing if the artists we featured encouraged others to come out of the woodwork, perhaps even serving as a means through which to network and meet, form collaborations and share ideas.

 

sounds good! so tell me, what are your plans for the future with it?

we’re just working on issue 3 at the moment and our immediate aim is to maintain and expand upon the surprisingly large following we’ve managed to create here in cambodia. after we feel that our roots have been laid down properly and have grown strong enough, we’re planning to distribute to other surrounding countries, such as thailand, malaysia and singapore.

 

wow, big plans! i wish you all the best for that, thank you so much for this insightfull interview. keep up with your awesomeness and next time i visit south east asia i would love to see a printed version of MILK magazin.

 

all of you who are currently not in cambodia but still want to catch up with MILK magazine look here!