Winners of the 2006 YAGP for HCM City
and

PERFORMATIVITY
1st Southeast Asian Performance for Video Showcase 2006

Ending my weekend day with my tired eyes. I got one interesting evening with, once again, albb activities. This time, also has talks but moreover, has screenings. I'd love to see films.

There are talks of 4 people (artists and photographers) : Ngo Dinh Truc, Lam Hieu Thuan, Le Vo Tuan, Lieu Nguyen Huong Duong. There could have been more, but for some personal problems, just 4 of them showing their work. They are the winners of Young Artists Grant Program (YARP) for Ho Chi Minh City. Each work expressed a different aspect through the life around them and has quite clear personal remark.
_ Le Vo Tuan with the video clip "I and Myself" is quite strange. There is him but being manipulated and each "him" was flown into a different place, different situation. The clips was recorded in many places like Vietnam and Singapore to express thoughts inside each places.
You can see the picture below to have the idea


_ Ngo Dinh Truc is actually a photographer but his work this time has one collection that he edited and played with the existing pictures (they're not his work) about Saigon. The main color is in gray scale. He also has another collection which expresses about the same characters, same shape, same colors of objects, and from them we can develop to humanity concepts.



_ Lam Hieu Thuan with the series about Apartments in Saigon is very impressive. There are people's life varied in the building. Though the rooms at the department are the same, but the decorations, the life style, the arrangement, the activities made each one a different view. They are old, messy and lumbered but that’s the reason I love them, very Vietnamese. As you know, every house needs a private space, but every daily activity here seemed to be all open. Many sides and concepts in those pictures, if you have a chance in the future, you should take a look at them ^^
_ Lieu Nguyen Huong Duong: an artist that made me admire of the painting skill. He has a personal remark on his work: the stroke variation. I saw 3 of his works about 3 different topics: people, nature (1 for waves and one for forests, flowers). The ability to use strokes, in his work is really impressive and brilliant. He uses long lines and dots in his work but we won’t see the repetition. What we see is just the big whole work was gather by those small elements. I hardly believe those are paintings because the lighting and details are so real.

The remaining time we saw videos that recorded about the process and final works. That's pretty long and kind of too many repetition. At the end of the show, we are told that those video were just for playing during the exhibition. We go to and fro to see Art Work and watch the video for information. So that is much more pleasant than we did this evening - sitting still and watch the whole long video :)