Sàn Art is pleased to introduce audience of Void Derry the special selection of video artworks and experimental films by 4 Vietnamese artists and filmmakers from different backgrounds and generation: Viet Kieu – Vietnamese growing up and living in foreign countries – to migrant citizens from other provinces; yet all are now residing in Saigon – the most vibrant city in Vietnam. If Saigon was celebrated as Oriental Pearl during its French colonial era and is now geared as the country’s economic stem, here the artists showcase multiple facets of the city much varied from what have been advertised. It is the seemingly futuristic apocalyptic Saigon ready to be dug by archaeologists and urbanologists in Tiffany Chung’s 3-channel video work an archaeology project for future remembrance (2013); the upper-real fatality of Saigonese’ lives in Siu Pham’s experimental movie HOMOSTRATUS (2013) or the beautiful yet polluted staged performance with motorbike and plastic tube in Uu Dam Nguyen’s triptych Serpents’ Tails Morning (2015). Even when the scenes are not literally Saigon, the mood of the city still latently appears. Those are the vanish of memorial locales along with commercialized real estate in Truong Minh Quy’s short movie Deja-vu (2014) filmed in the Central Highlands. Each facet depicts the reminiscences, the current realities and its imaginative / destructive/ utopian foreseen futures of this city.

The screening is curated by Arlette Quỳnh-Anh Trần, Assistant Curator of Sàn Art. This is part of the exhibition Spring Watching Pavilion at Derry Void (Ireland) curated by Orla Ryan.