15 April - space

Hanoi, near Au Trieu Street

So to get to the point - the 'Ho Chi Minh Trail' feels like its skeleton is being given more marrow and the human flesh is starting to form. Lu Jie and I traveled to Hanoi and Saigon (14-22 April) to meet with various people to discuss the project with key 'shakers' who may be willing to be involved in this 'knowledge production' project. 15th April, Hanoi: Vu Dan Tan, Natasha Kraskaevskia, Tuong Do Linh, visiting Salon Natasha, Bui Gallery, Studio Tho, Apricot Gallery, Art Vietnam Gallery, Studio 25, Viet Art Centre, L'Espace and ending the day editing Lu Jie's paper for a publication Long March Space is doing with CHARTA in Milan. It was such a head F*** to turn the brain back to the history of China in the mad mayhem of xecom bikes and 35 degrees and white wine but Lu Jie's ideas of how the West have pigeonholed the argument of the development of Chinese contemporary art in too simplistic a reduction of a particular historical moment is a pertinent argument. Why is it that 1989 is considered such a year of particular rupture, as if the idea of revolution and violence had not occurred before in China? The argument for how particular cultural phenomenon eventuates cannot be historicized in isolation - the occurences of the present are confluence of many various factors. Re-writing and editing this paper with Lu Jie (Yang Shaobin - X-Blind Spot) made me realize just how important it is to do the 'Ho Chi Minh Trail' Project.... to provide an opportunity for an engagement of history from a lateral perspective that eases the borders of psychological or political limit. We ended the day at Tadioto, a new gallery and bar in downtown Hanoi opened by Nguyen Qui Duc. We reminisced about finally meeting Vu Dan Tan. An artist who, in the early 1970s had board a train bound for Moscow, via Beijing and Cuba..... a journey undertaken without setting foot on capitalist territory. This story Lu Jie first heard from Dinh Q Le years back. It was such a 'whoop' from Lu Jie when he realized who Vu Dan Tan was... apart from the fact that he was one of the first Vietnamese contemporary artists to open his studio doors to the public. Vu Dan Tan's daughter is learning Mandarin and will be in Beijing in July - how nice it would be to see him in China!


Lu Jie and Vu Dan Tan at Salon Natasha


Art Vietnam Gallery


Bui Gallery


Re- thinking Lu Jie's text