VietNamNet Bridge – ‘Echoing Nostalgia, Collecting Counter-memories’ on Thursday opened at San Art, a unique exhibition that immerses the audience in a space where the line between the past and the present is somewhat blurred.

In the show, Pham Ngoc Lan, John Monteith and Nguyen Trinh Thi each offer a video artwork, the visual experiences of which are interwoven with BT Shaw’s counter-responses in poetry and translation work by Ho Lieu. In this exhibition, the chronological progression from past to present is no longer completely linear.

The common perspective on past values, classic beauty and historical forms of ‘unconditional’ belief will be challenged by the ‘counter-memories’ of each individual: the visual artist, the poet and the spectator. In terms of format, all three artists explore the synergy between picture and sound in video works. In terms of ideas, they all reflect the similarities and the differences in historical values at various points in time.

Lan, born 1986 in Hanoi and graduating from Hanoi Architecture University with a degree in Urban Planning, possesses a historical and social perspective on the relations between the collective and the individual. In ‘The Story of Ones’ 2011, images of Hanoi in transition from the past to the future, from classic tranquility to modern chaos, is projected with the sounds of Vietnam’s national radio.

Canadian visual artist Monteith, born 1973, is currently based between Berlin, New York and Toronto. In his video ‘Pyongyang, North Korea, 5 June 101 (2012) 5:00 – 5:06:48am’ (2012), filmed in North Korea, the work takes the audience to a serene and peaceful dawn in Pyongyang.

Thi, a documentary filmmaker and visual artist, born 1973, is based in Hanoi. She revisits the past with ‘Song to the front’ (2011). This work refers to the 1973 classic motion picture with the same name; overplayed with the scores from the classic ballet ‘The Rite of Spring’ by Stravinsky.

Shaw, who wrote a series of poems in response to the three aforementioned video artworks, is from the U.S. and currently lives in HCMC. Her publication ‘This Dirty Little Heart’ won the ‘Blue Lynx Poetry Prize’ in 2007.

The show runs till September 5 at 3 Me Linh Street in Binh Thanh District.

San Art will also host an art talk ‘The past in words and images’ presented by Thi from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at San Art. The show will focus on the similarities and differences between written text and visual art (video art, film, photography) in the re-reading of the past and her experimentation with chronicled and historical material to form new creative artworks.

Source: SGT