(Meeting in Saigon on the 19 September 2008 at the Temple Club, an old Chinese temple from c. 1900s, to discuss the Ho Chi Minh Trail project. (from left): Tuan Andrew Nguyen (artist); Dinh Q Le (artist); Nguyen Nhu Huy (artist/curator); Rich Streitmatter-Tran (artist) and Zoe Butt - big thanks to Ha Thuc Phuc Nam who was also there but sadly not photographed!)
BIG THANK YOU to Dinh Q Le, Nguyen Nhu Huy, Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Ha Thuc Phu Nam, Rich Streitmatter-Tran, Tran Luong and Dang Giang for putting up with me these last few weeks of back and forth emails in the necessary discussion concerning the Ho Chi Minh Trail (Duong Truong Son) project. The discussions in Saigon on the 19 September were particularly useful, especially in my subsequent long talks with the Long March team in the final arrangements for our next gathering in Ho Chi Minh City on the 15th November.
I appreciate the sensitivities of this project and the particular historical suspicions/anxieties held between Vietnam and China, however this is an artistic project and central to the philosophy of the Long March Project is the artistic discovery of the self and its relationship to its past, its present and its future. As artists, as essential contributors to the meaning and role of culture in contemporary society, it is crucial that the systems and language of visual production be re-interpreted and challenged. This often means that Long March Project propose activities which provoke different readings of history and in turn alternate methods of artistic display beyond the white space of a gallery or museum.
This proposed project seeks to engage the inheritance of the ‘Ho Chi Minh Trail’ as another kind of journey of self-discovery. As a historical moment, it references certain political alliances and beliefs of both a local and international confluence, as a social moment it highlights the complex interwoven narratives between these countries.
Looking forward to see you all and many more on the 15th. Ly Daravuth will be coming from Phnom Penh; Tran Luong and Dang Giang from Hanoi, and hopefully a few artists from Hanoi (awaiting word of funding). If anyone has any great ideas for venue for this informal gathering I would be keen to hear ... and zoe has ideas of holding the meeting in the lower 'dungeons' of the Reunification Palace... but I am not sure that would be allowed.... heh.
Ciao
Zoe
I appreciate the sensitivities of this project and the particular historical suspicions/anxieties held between Vietnam and China, however this is an artistic project and central to the philosophy of the Long March Project is the artistic discovery of the self and its relationship to its past, its present and its future. As artists, as essential contributors to the meaning and role of culture in contemporary society, it is crucial that the systems and language of visual production be re-interpreted and challenged. This often means that Long March Project propose activities which provoke different readings of history and in turn alternate methods of artistic display beyond the white space of a gallery or museum.
This proposed project seeks to engage the inheritance of the ‘Ho Chi Minh Trail’ as another kind of journey of self-discovery. As a historical moment, it references certain political alliances and beliefs of both a local and international confluence, as a social moment it highlights the complex interwoven narratives between these countries.
Looking forward to see you all and many more on the 15th. Ly Daravuth will be coming from Phnom Penh; Tran Luong and Dang Giang from Hanoi, and hopefully a few artists from Hanoi (awaiting word of funding). If anyone has any great ideas for venue for this informal gathering I would be keen to hear ... and zoe has ideas of holding the meeting in the lower 'dungeons' of the Reunification Palace... but I am not sure that would be allowed.... heh.
Ciao
Zoe
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