Visualizing absence

Opening: 24.06.2014 @6:30pm Location: Hoa Sen University Rm. NZ507 (5th Floor) 8 Nguyen Van Trang, Dst. 1, Ho Chi Minh City     This lecture will consider how contemporary art practices take up the problem of visualizing absence by archiving and creating around social and political erasure. As artists and thinkers, how do we identify and respond to stories, social histories, and conflicts which we experience as crucial to our understanding of our own history, nation, or family, but yet seem difficult to extract from the public domain, or remain...

Architectures of myth: the future is the past

Opening: 20.06.2014 @6:30pm Location: Hoa Sen University Rm NZ0903 (9th Floor) 8 Nguyen Van Trang Dst. 1, Ho Chi Minh City     This lecture will explore the power of key visual and storytelling devices central to mythological narrative and their particular ongoing legacy in contemporary visual and popular culture.I will begin by looking at the architecture of the grand epics of classical Eastern and Western traditions, such as Homer’s Odyssey, the Ramayana and the Monkey King story. Using such epics as lens, my lecture will elaborate upon why and...

Open spirit – the Bini of Cham in Vietnam

Opening: 10.04.2014 @6:30pm Location: Hoa Sen University Rm. NZ0204, 2th Floor Hoa Sen University 8 Nguyen Van Trang, D.1 Ho Chi Minh City     Inrasara continues to unpack the history of the three ancient kingdoms of Vietnam, to remark on why history must acknowledge not only the dominant narratives of the past, but also the smaller, ethnic narratives that are equally significant to the union of a people, of a community, of a nation. The Champa Kingdom (2nd Century-1832) expressed great harmony between different faith and peoples. This kingdom...

The mystery of Cham, an ancient journey

Opening: 08.04.2014 @6:30pm Location: Hoa Sen University Rm NZ0903, 9th Floor Hoa Sen University 8 Nguyen Van Trang, D.1 Ho Chi Minh City     Inrasara will unpack the history of the three ancient kingdoms of Vietnam, to remark on why history must acknowledge not only the dominant narratives of the past, but also the smaller, ethnic narratives that are equally significant to the union of a people, of a community, of a nation. There are plenty of myths about Vietnam, historical and literary. A myth makes its home between...

Reviving and nurturing materials culture for creative purposes

Opening: 08.11.2013 @6:30pm Location: RMIT R. 5.2.02/03 RMIT (D3) 21 Pham Ngoc Thach, D.3     Originality and creativity are crucial attributes that encourage establishment and development of a locality’s material culture. Through analysis of a particular material – here with the rare black silk from Tan Chau, An Giang Province – Dr. Truong Thi Kim Chuyen, Senior Lecturer of Geography Department, University of Social Sciences and Humanity HCMC, will discuss how to maintain and renew tradition by examining the crucial relationship between location, community, material and creative reality. Dr....