Artist talk
Red River Acupuncture: Lessons from the mud

Community participation in art, through the perspective of Vietnamese and German artists

Mon, 07.10.2024
6:30 PM - 20:30 Goethe-Institut Hanoi

Registration to participate

‘Acupuncture’ is one of the ways Floating University Berlin described their presence at the Red River bank area over the past two weeks during their short residency as part of the ‘Community Garden’ project initiated by Goethe-Institut Hanoi, the French Institute in Hanoi, and Think Playgrounds. Through their artistic practices, French, German, and Vietnamese artists aimed to activate the ecological narratives during the rapid development phase of Vietnam’s capital city.

In a space operated by the local community, where and how should the needles be placed to stimulate meaningful discussions? After the historic flood and the lingering mud on the Red River’s banks, how should art and community development projects be conducted appropriately?

Speakers

Eliza Chojnacka Eliza Chojnacka (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist. Centering her interests around poetic, cultural and social ties to food and maintenance. In her artistic practice, she employs ephemeral activities such as fermentation, cooking, performance, poetry, painting and daydreaming as a way of unfolding stories. Her works focus on practicing environmental care through a queer lense. A graduate of Social Design at the University of Fine Arts in Vienna. Her practice grew on the moist ground of Spółdzielnia Krzak, a non-profit collectively-run garden and art collective in Warsaw, Poland. She has been a part of the Floating University collective since 2021 She collaborated with and showed her work at 26th Biennial of Design, Ljubljana; Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw; DOCK20, Lustenau; ZK/U, Berlin; łęctwo Gallery; Krupa Art Fundation, Wrocław, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin and D21 Kunstraum, Leipzig.

Jöran Mandik Jöran Mandik (he/him/they/them) is an urban practitioner and researcher (M.Sc. Urban Design, TU Berlin, RMIT Melbourne) as well as a facilitator, cultural producer, artist and storyteller. They have been active as an urban practitioner since 2017 working at the intersection of art, urbanism, research and education as a member of Floating e.V., Urbane Praxis e.V. and the action-research project Making Futures Bauhaus+ (Berlin University of the Arts and raumlaborberlin). Their work focus on community activation, story telling, conviviality and facilitation.

Chu Kim Đức
Chu Kim Duc is the co-founder and director of Think Playgrounds Social Enterprise. She has a lot of experience in designing and renovating creative and children-friendly public spaces throughout Vietnam as well as promoting The Right to play for children. In 2020, Ms. Chu Kim Duc was voted as one of the 100 most influential women in the world by BBC magazine.

Trần Lương Trần Lương is an independent curator, visual artist, and major figure in creating space for critical contemporary art in Vietnam. A generous mentor of youth, Tran Luong goes beyond normal curatorship, encouraging performers to push the boundaries, creating exchanges between North, Centre and South Vietnam.
Trần Lương is currently the co-founder of APD Center, Chairman of the advisory board of Sống Foundation, member of the Artistic Advisory Council – Asian Cultural Council New York NY. from 2019. He has also participated in many prestigious international art councils such as the Art Network Asia (ANA) (2003 – 2009), International Jury of 59th International Oberhausen film festival in Germany (2013). World prestigious art awards: Prince Claus Prize of the Netherlands (2014), The Andy Warhol Foundation Award for the Visual Arts (1999). 

Phạm Minh Đức Pham Minh Duc is a 42 years-old creative recycler from Hanoi. With two bachelor’s degrees in economics and business informatics, Duc was working in the banking industry before quitting for the challenge at a waste sorting facility. Now recycling plastics, glass bottles and Tetrapak, being a co-founder of Lighting Group Art for Change, he is trying to raise social awareness about municipal solid waste. He is also a sales representative for the German company STADLER Anlagenbau GmbH, world-leading provider for waste sorting solutions.

Moderator

Ngụy Hải An
Ngụy Hải An (born in 1991) graduated with Bachelor and Master degrees in International Politics at Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam. She started working in art field from 2018 in different positions: education curator, communicator and event coordinator. Besides, she has actively supported many community art projects such as: research partner and content writer for Hanoi Grapevine, media manager and art coordinator for Classical music project “Schubert in a Mug” and president of PAN Proactive Audience Network. She worked at VCCA Vincom Center for Contemporary Art from 2018-2020 and directly organized many remarkable art events: Light and Sound Performance “Our Light” (2019), Music Performance “Into the Noise” (2019), Series of workshop for children “Travel in the world of art” (2020).