Dance
Laundries in Hanoi

Dance performance and media installation by Riki von Falken (choreography, dance) and Nguyen Trinh Thi (media). German-Vietnamese co-production for the Dance Festival.

Wed, 21.09.2016
Youth theater Hanoi

In Riki von Falkens childhood in the 60s, television brought the images of the Vietnam War even into German living rooms. The media artist Nguyen Trinh Thi was born in Hanoi shortly after the last big bombardments. Both women still carry those pictures within themselves; even the images of the war had been eliminated, their context of life was consciously and unconsciously influenced by it.
 
The Goethe-Institut Hanoi brought the artists together for a joint project. At the beginning the choreographer Riki von Falkens started her research of images and movements in the urban area of Hanoi in summer 2015 just by herself, then Nguyen Trinh Thi joined her. Since Thi lived in Berlin for one year as a scholarship holder of the DAAD artists’ program from fall 2015, it was possible to work on the piece over a longer period. Exchange and an individual artistical work alternated at that time.

The dance and media piece „Laundries in Hanoi“, a solo performance by the choreographer Riki von Falken herself, focuses memories. How are these maintained and projected into the future? The artists take the audience on a journey of transformation of experience and its influence on images in the present. Riki von Falkens’ choreography consciously surrounds the interrupted and repetitive memories – movements and gestures, individual and “cultural” gestures – in order to investigate the imagery of the body, the “normal” and often casual movements, with a keen eye. The cutting technique of the video artist transfers into the chorographical inspiration, where compositions of the body start to communicate with the imagery.

The dance and media piece LAUNDRIES IN HANOI celebrates its premiere on September 8 at the Uferstudios Berlin. Followed by the performances at the opening of the festival “Europe meets Asia in Contemporary Dance” on September 21 in Hanoi and on September 25 in Ho Chi Minh City. 
 

Riki von Falken © Riki von Falken

Riki von Falken, born 1954 in Hohenlimburg, has worked as a dancer and choreographer in Berlin since 1981. During her studies in New York she gained vital impulses for her own artistical development. Besides being a dancer and choreographer she taught choreography in Kuala Lumpur at the invitation of the Goethe-Institut in 2010. The dance piece „ECHO II“ was created in a further cooperation with the Goethe-Institut. Her choreographies had been already performed in Brasil, Malaysia, Philippines, New Zealand and Romania. 2016 the artist received the first Willms Neuhaus Award of the foundation „Zufall und Gestaltung“ for her entire chorographical works.
 

© Nguyen Trinh Thi

Nguyen Trinh Thi is a Hanoi-based moving image artist. Her diverse practice, transcending the boundaries between cinema, documentary and performance, has consistently engaged with memory and history. Her works have been shown at International festivals and art exhibitions including Jeu de Paume, Paris, Lyon Biennale 2015 and Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale 2014 amongst others. As a scholarship holder of the DAAD artists’ program Nguyen Trinh Thi lived from fall 2015 for one year in Berlin and intensified the work with Riki von Falken for their latest work „Laundries in Hanoi“.
 
Concept, choreography, dance: Riki von Falken
Video: Nguyen Trinh Thi
Dramaturgy: Katja Kettner
Stage, videographer: Oscar Loeser
Costume: Heather MacCrimmon
Light and sound design, technical direction: Ralf Grüneberg
PR: Kerstin Böttcher
Graphic: Franziska Schwarz/schwarzplus
Production management: Christine Elbel