Screening, Performance, Conversation: Where The Sea Remembers
Screening, Performance, Conversation | Oct. 12-13, 2020
This is a past event.
For the closing weekend of Where The Sea Remembers, a screening of select videos, a conversation, and a performance animate the ideas behind the exhibition.
About the Screening, Performance, Conversation.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2019
Film and Performance Convening
Saturday October 12th, 2019, 1-5 pm
1:00 — 2:00 pm
At Water’s Edge: Recent Film Works from Vietnam
At Water’s Edge presents a focused selection of short film works by Vietnamese artists and filmmakers created since 2007. During this time, increasingly affordable digital recording equipment and accessible editing software made it possible for emerging and established filmmakers to rely less on private and government funding. Able to work more easily between and beyond both the long-standing world of state-produced features and the expanding field of commercial films, artists embraced non-linear and self-reflexive narrative techniques to engage less considered subjects. Concurrently, historical, technical, and theoretical knowledge of filmmaking was shared by professionals and enthusiasts through a variety of platforms, including local institutions like Hanoi Doclab and Nha San Collective, international and regional film festivals and convenings, and social media and the internet. Collectively, these spaces help foster a community within Vietnam, and across its diasporas, for the production and reception of experimental moving image works and independent films.
This program focuses on works that intersect and complement the questions and themes that are central to Where The Sea Remembers. They explore the increasingly experimental, non-linear and self-reflexive ways in which Vietnamese moving-image makers document the impact wrought by urban and technological development in the present, as well as re-engage the past through a combination of realism and fantasy. At Water’s Edge shares its name with a 2012 documentary short by filmmaker Do Van Hoang, which presents a portrait of a local swimming hole in Hanoi where individuals from disparate walks of life gather to share a little space and time together. Similar to Hoang’s quiet stretch of river, moving images are a shared commons where practitioners from distinct disciplines, geographies, and life experiences gather to tell stories, whether that is a mesmerizing tribute to a fallen poet, a stylized remembrance of a history partially-forgotten, or a hellish trip through the internet. The goal of this program is to provide audiences with a brief introduction to the vibrant moving-image community in Vietnam.
Do Van Hoang, At Water’s Edge, 2012, 16:27 mins.
This documentary paints a portrait of a quiet island in the middle of the Red River where swimmer's bodies can cool and people from distinct walks of life mingle in unexpected ways.
Truong Minh Quy, How Green the Calabash Garden Was, 2017, 15:00 mins.
Together with the director, a Vietnamese veteran recreates the horrors of the Cambodian genocide with the help of drawings made in a lush calabash garden.
Lê Xuân Tiến, Untitled.mp4, 2017, 15:32 mins.
An experimental found footage film that documents a more twisted side of society and pop-culture through material and videos appropriated from the Internet.
Truong Que Chi, Black Sun, 2012, 12:55 mins.Soleil Noir is the name of a rock song that expressed the pessimism of the youth of the Republic of South Vietnam, before the unification of the country in 1975. In 2012, young people still hum this song. "Black Sun" describes a young couple drifting within Vietnam's largest city.
2:00 - 2:30 pm
BREAK
2:30 - 4:00 pm
Screenings: 2:30-3:30pm | Conversation 3:30-4:00pm
The Body, Performed
Body-based practices have a rich and complex history in Vietnam. This introductory presentation encompasses screenings of performative-based video works and performance documentations that trace the ways bodies engage in the creation of artistic practices. Works screened will preview a forthcoming performance series that will mark the first collaboration with Vietnamese artists staged after the initial initiative launched with this exhibition. A conversation on performance practices will follow with members of the curatorial team and invited guest speakers.
4:00 - 4:30 pm
BREAK
4:30 - 5:00 pm
Performative Storytelling with Thinh NguyenArtist Thinh Nguyen will activate their installation of Across The American Plains one final time by recounting the life-changing experiences that occurred as they hitchhiked across the United States, from romantic dramas to encountering racism and homophobia at close range.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2019
1:00-2:00pm
Curator-led WalkthroughJoin us for a final curator-led walkthrough of Where The Sea Remembers by the curatorial team of TMR and exhibition co-organizer Anna Borisova. The Mistake Room will be open this Sunday for a final day of the exhibition.
About the Participants.
Truong Que Chi (b. 1987, Vietnam) is an artist, a curator, and a filmmaker. Her practice examines the spectacle of everyday violence in Vietnam and delves into the complex relationship between archive, memory and imagination. Her works have been featured at various local and international film festivals, exhibitions, and symposium, including: Site/Shine/Sight, a duo show with architectural studio vn-a, The Factory Contemporary Arts Centre, Vietnam (2018); When I stop by the Cape, solo show, Nhà Sàn Collective, Vietnam (2017); Cosmopolis #1, Centre Pompidou, France (2017); Asian Film Focus: Time Machine, Objectifs–Centre for Photography and Film, Singapore (2017); Skylines with Flying People 3, Nhà Sàn Collective, Vietnam (2015-2017). Truong Que Chi is currently a member of Nha San Collective’s curator board since 2015. She is also a film lecturer at the Hanoi University of Theatre and Cinema.
Do Van Hoang (b. 1987, Vietnam) graduated from the University of Theatre and Cinema at Hanoi. Some of his works include: “Underneath it All” (documentary, 17m), “At Water’s Edge” (documentary, 17m), “A Film on Sofa” (short film, 17m), “A Silent Shout” (short film, 20m), “False Brillante” (short film, 22m), and “Drowning Dew” (a collaboration with Art Labor Collective). His works have been shown at Hanoi Docfest, Yamagata Film Festival, Centre Pompidou, Times Museum.
Gabby Miller (b. 1985, USA) is an artist from the Bay Area who has also lived and worked extensively in Hanoi, Vietnam, where she has organized projects with Nha San Collective and The Queer Forever Festival. She has made work for the Artesterium project in Tbilisi, Georgia, co-organized the IN:ACT Performance Art Symposium in Hanoi, and exhibited at The Luggage Store, Museum of Capitalism, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, SoMarts, Aljira Center for Contemporary Art, Boston Center for the Arts, and Random Parts Gallery. Gabby has a degree in Anthropology from Reed College and is currently pursuing an MFA in studio art at UC Irvine.
Truong Quý Minh (b. 1990, Vietnam) was born in Buon Ma Thuot, a small city in the Central Highlands area of Vietnam. His hometown and childhood memories serve as an important inspiration for his work. In 2008, he started studying at Ho Chi Minh City College of Cinema and Theatre. In his second year, he quit his study to pursue his career as an independent filmmaker. In 2016, he participated in Berlinale Talents, the Berlin International Film Festival's talent development programme. In addition, his films have been selected for film festivals and exhibitions such as Clermont-Ferrand, Oberhausen, Busan, Videobrasil and Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin.
Thinh Nguyen (b. 1984, Vietnam) is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in Los Angeles who investigates the intersections of cultural values. Utilizing various media, they explore and expose oppressive social conditioning around race, gender, sexuality, and belief systems. Nguyen has performed and exhibited nationally and internationally, most recently at The Hammer Museum, REDCAT, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, and Human Resources, all in Los Angeles. They have presented interventions at The New Museum, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; and Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Their work has been written about in Artforum, the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Magazine, LA Weekly, Hyperallergic, Artillery and numerous online forums. Nguyen holds a BFA in drawing and painting from California State Univerisity, Fullerton and an MFA in interdisciplinary studies from Claremont Graduate University, California.
Le Xuan Tien (b. 1995, Vietnam) is a moving image practitioner currently based in Hanoi,
Vietnam. Tien graduated from Hanoi Academy of Theatre and Cinema in 2017 with a degree in Cinematography. Since 2015, he has started to practice independently and work with moving image as his main medium. Tien is relentless focused on examining and exploring the way Individual relationships manifest in various contexts of the Whole.
César García-Alvarez is TMR’s Executive and Artistic Director.
Related
Credits
Screening, Performance, Conversation: Where The Sea Remembers Closing Weekend is organized by TMR and presented in conjunction with Where The Sea Remembers.
This event is part of Histories of a Vanishing Present, TMR’s 2019-2020 curatorial cycle exploring the global dynamics of postmemory. Major support for this cycle is provided by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
TMR's program is made possible with the support of its Board of Directors, Big Mistake Patron Group, International Council, and Contemporary Council.
This project is made possible through a major gift from Stephen O. Lesser.
Photo Credit: The Mistake Room. Copyright 2019. The Mistake Room Inc.