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Every three months, DVAN features the work of a different Vietnamese artist, one who is either working in the diaspora or who has returned to Viet Nam. This quarter, our featured artist is Hong-An Truong.
Read more about Hong-An Truong.
Advisory Board member Nguyen Qui Duc recently returned to live and work in Viet Nam. He just finished constructing a beautiful house in the mountains near Ha Noi, part of which he plans to use as a writing residency for DVAN. More news to come on this exciting development. Until then, you can sigh over the photos of his house found in this International Herald Tribune/New York Times article.
The view from Nguyen Qui Duc's house near Ha Noi.
Japanese-American-Vietnamese artist, Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba, is well known on the international art circuit for his striking video installations. In his new work "Breathing is Free: 12,756.3," he will run the diameter of the earth (12,756.3) in cities of the world at different times. Breathing is Free is a virtual earth drawing, exhibited as an installation, illustrating the movement of populations around the world. The ASU Art Museum exhibition is the U.S. premiere of the Breathing is Free performance and installation. Learn more here. Read the full press release here.
Breathing is Free: 12,756.3 - Ho Chi Minh City, 118.3km
Photo credit: Bui Minh Diem Chinh
4th Biennial Vietnamese International Film Festival takes place from April 2 - 12, 2009, featuring over sixty films by Vietnamese filmmakers from across the globe
click here, here, and here for for the festival calendar and panel schedule
DVAN advisory board member Viet Le speaks in Boston
Rockefeller Fellows to Make Presentations at UMass Boston April 25-26, 2009
http://www.joinercenter.umb.edu
by Nguyen Ba Chung
Nguyen Lien, Professor of English, Hanoi, presenting “The Role of the Arts in Raising Awareness of Agent Orange Consequences”.
On the weekend of April 25-26 the William Joiner Center will host a group of 10 Rockefeller Fellows who will come to UMass Boston to make presentations on their research projects for the program "Culture, Art, Trauma, Survival, Development: Vietnamese Contexts." The 10 fellows will include 4 Americans, 2 Vietnamese-Americans, and 4 Vietnamese from Vietnam.
This project is a collaborative effort of the University of Massachusetts Boston's William Joiner Center for the Study of War and Social Consequences, the Asian-American Studies Program, the East Asian Studies Program, and the Institute of Asian-American Studies. Starting in 2004, the project has focused on expanding on the work of a previous cycle of fellowships. "(Re)constructing Identity and Place in the Vietnamese Diaspora" seeks to examine the roles culture and art have played in the contexts of postwar experiences of Vietnam and the Vietnamese people. Work has focused on both Vietnam and the Diaspora. The project aims to engage scholars, activists, and community leaders whose work, both practical and theoretical, has addressed the issues of culture, art, war, trauma, survival, and development.
Of a total of 15 fellows, five have already made their presentations in an earlier session. The remaining 10 fellows will cover a wide range of subjects and areas of interests.
From the United States, Sophie-Quinn Judge and her co-researcher, Jane Barton, will report on "Trauma, Survival, Gender: The Lives of Revolutionary Women of Central Vietnam;" Dan Duffy on "A Web-based Collective Resource on the Field of Vietnamese Literature;" Viet Le on "The Art Part: Desires and Divides in Viet Nam, Korea and its Diasporas;" and Nguyen Thuyet Phong on "Buddhist Religious Ceremonies in North Vietnam: Consequences of a War and the Power of Regeneration."
From Vietnam and the United States Charles Waugh and Nguyen Lien will discuss "The Role of the Arts in Raising Awareness of Agent Orange Consequences."
Coming from Vietnam, Bao Dat will present his research on "Investigating Reticence for Educational Development - Empirical Study of the English Classroom in High Schools and the Universities in Ho Chi Minh City;" Phan Cam Thuong will discuss his study, "The Social Life in Vietnam and the Postwar Boomerang;" and, finally, the writer Bui Ngoc Tan, who authored the internationally acclaimed semi-autobiographical novel "Story of the Year 2000," will deliberate on the role of jailed intellectuals in socialist Vietnam - "The Resigned Bearer of History."
After the presentation, the fellows from Vietnam will have the opportunity to travel to New York, Washington, D.C., and/or California to meet with local writers and artists.
The presentations will be in the Chancellor's Conference Room at UMass Boston on Saturday, April 25, 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., and Sunday, April 26, 9:00 a.m. - noon.