Vietnam
Vietnamese artists joined the collective after attending TERASIA’s presentation at TPAM (Performing Arts Meeting in Yokohama) 2021. Unlike other Buddhist countries such as Thailand and Myanmar, many Vietnamese people regard themselves as non-religious, a reflection of socialistic concepts. At the same time, local traditions of ancestor worship combined with Buddhism are deeply rooted in people’s everyday lives.
Initially, the team planned a site-specific performance in fall 2021. However, due to the prolonged lockdown, they shifted the media from stage to video, and commenced the research process as a long-term project. Their consummate final performance, TERA Vietnam: From the Womb to the Cave, is planned to be held at a cave-temple in northeast Vietnam, home to the team’s filmmaker Red.
For TERASIA Online Week 2021, the team will share their artistic approaches as well as their current ideas, which also draws inspiration from the story of a Vietnamese technical intern in Japan who was accused of a crime after giving birth to stillborn twins at her home.
Initially, the team planned a site-specific performance in fall 2021. However, due to the prolonged lockdown, they shifted the media from stage to video, and commenced the research process as a long-term project. Their consummate final performance, TERA Vietnam: From the Womb to the Cave, is planned to be held at a cave-temple in northeast Vietnam, home to the team’s filmmaker Red.
For TERASIA Online Week 2021, the team will share their artistic approaches as well as their current ideas, which also draws inspiration from the story of a Vietnamese technical intern in Japan who was accused of a crime after giving birth to stillborn twins at her home.
Talk
“TERA Vietnam: A Research-in-Progress”
Speakers:
Nguyen Hai Yen (Red), Linh Valerie Pham
Language:
English with Japanese subtitles
Streaming Schedule
From Saturday, November 27 at 9:00 p.m.; archived indefinitely
Program Highlights
The team in Vietnam is embarking on the journey of creating their version of TERA through research, the first phase of which they plan to present as a fictional documentary in the summer of 2022.
In the Japanese versions of TERA, we, as living humans, gather at a temple and contemplate our current lives and what comes after death. In contrast, TERA Vietnam will focus on unborn lives such as the fetus, as well as the so-called “third space,” which is neither life nor death. The idea is influenced by the story of a Vietnamese technical intern in Japan who gave birth to stillborn twins at her home, after enduring pregnancy alone from fear of losing her trainee status. The local court ruled her guilty of ‘abandoning corpses,’ and the appeals court is set to hear her case in late November 2021.
In the Japanese versions of TERA, we, as living humans, gather at a temple and contemplate our current lives and what comes after death. In contrast, TERA Vietnam will focus on unborn lives such as the fetus, as well as the so-called “third space,” which is neither life nor death. The idea is influenced by the story of a Vietnamese technical intern in Japan who gave birth to stillborn twins at her home, after enduring pregnancy alone from fear of losing her trainee status. The local court ruled her guilty of ‘abandoning corpses,’ and the appeals court is set to hear her case in late November 2021.
Speakers
Nguyen Hai Yen (Red)
Red started practising moving images at Hanoi Doclab in 2015. Her short film Summer siesta: 6th hour counting from dawn (2017) was exhibited at Fundacion PROA (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and White Chapell (London) She is also a member of AJAR Press, an independent publishing house based in Hanoi. In June 2019, she had her first art residency at Á Space (Hanoi), and coordinated her first solo exhibition, Mùng mung. She has practiced organizing mixed experimental music/film/performance programs at Heritage Space since 2018. In late 2019, she began researching contemporary dance and theater production. She has been collaborating with H2Q Art, MORUA, the choreographer Ngo Thanh Phuong, Mat Tran Ensembles, and other artists. Her experiences include various projects including Method; L’EGO (Kinergie Studio), X-PROJECT, Sound Barrier, Through the door then…, Eye See Ai, 1936, and more. She was chosen to be a participant of Producers Camp 2021, organized by the Taiwan National Theater & Concert Hall.
Linh Valerie Pham
Linh Valerie Pham (Creator, Theatre Director) is an experimental theatre and puppetry artist based in Vietnam. A theatre graduate of Sarah Lawrence College (New York), she is interested in movement, puppetry, breath, pretty words, ugly words, and all things magical. Her aim as an artist is to tell stories in a way that disrupts and destabilizes order. Her works have been showcased at the Goethe-Institut (Hanoi), A Space – Experimental Arts (Hanoi), the Vincom Center for Contemporary Arts (Hanoi), The Factory Contemporary Arts Center (HCM City), Soul Live Project (HCM City), Institut Francais Indonesia (Jogjakarta), CPR – Center for Performance Research (New York), Dixon Place (New York) and many other venues. She served as artist-in-residence at Rimbun Dahan (Malaysia), Udaipur (India), ASSITEJ Next Generation Tokyo (virtual) and a Fellow of Arts for Good Singapore. Valerie is also the Founder and Artistic Director of Mat Tran Ensemble, a performing arts collective with a focus on inclusive and socially-engaged practices. She and Mat Tran are grant recipients of British Council’s Connections through Culture Fund, Digital Collaboration Fund as well as ASEF and Prince Clause’s Mobility Fund, amongst many others. Ritualistic actions and repetitive movements are central to many of her recent works such as burn/city (Pesta Boneka – International Puppetry Festival, Indonesia 2020) and Gieu Ty Can (VCCA, Hanoi, 2021).
https://linhpham.myportfolio.com/