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...

What is an animate image?

Opening: 22.05.2014 @6:30pm Location: RMIT Saigon South campus, Melbourne Theatre 702 Nguyen Van Linh, District 7 Ho Chi Minh City   This lecture is about the poetics of mediation. It proposes a theory of the ‘animate image’ – an image that moves, that breathes, that remembers. I begin by considering the encounter between contemporary art and an older, ‘traditional’ kind of image, at an animist festival in Thailand’s northeast. The encounter serves as an entry-point into some of the challenges I have faced as a curator and a theorist, doing...

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...

Asia as network: futures of the past

Opening: 26.02.2014 @6:30pm Location: University of Social Sciences and Humanities Room C.103, USSH 12 Dinh Tien Hoang, D1   Historically this region known as Asia had no strict boundaries, it was densely interconnected by trade and religion, evidenced in cultural practice (their rituals, arts and crafts). These informal networks had profound implications on the relationship between culture and society across this region. Today, there is an emerging consensus that continuing our pursuit of existing modes of production, consumption and the political economic arrangements that underpin them will endanger planetary sustainability...