The You is a performance experiment conducted by Ian Richter, Jo or Ngô Kỳ Duyên and Đoàn Thanh Toàn. As artist researchers our shared interests are weaved together in a balance between control and accident. The experience is composed of visual projections, live music and physical performance crafted using the codes of a scientific experiment and influenced by methods of creative therapy.
The past year has given artists and cultural organisations the opportunity and obligation to question their worth, intention, and usefulness. Most of the creative community has lost resources, and with the future of the industry remaining uncertain, many have lost bearings and perspective.
Currently the art community is coming to terms with this massive change in structure, a trauma of sorts. And facing this uncertainty creates opportunity; that to inhabit the spaces available to us and to recalculate our resources of knowledge.
To assist our study, we invite the public to explore the tangible effects of the Covid pandemic on the contemporary art community and current therapeutic practices that integrate sensorial arousal.
We would love to welcome you on our journey.
Please register to be part of the experiments here: https://forms.gle/xU7PPYTmjsdBvqbaA
*A project kindly supported by the Japan Foundation Vietnam and the Goethe-Institut of Saigon and Hanoi through the project initiatives “Idea Booster” and “Culture Lab (Xuong Van Hoa)”
Sound: Ian Richter
Ian Richter is an electronic musician, producer, and music therapist who operates through a number of artistic personas.
Having lived in two of the world’s most conflicted regions - South Africa and the Middle East - he's been exposed to culture through a unique set of circumstances. Growing up in the sleepy surfer town of Durban, he eagerly absorbed the sonic influences offered to him, drawn to both Western and African music.
Moving to Israel offered him the chance to connect to a more active alternative music scene. Tel Aviv proved to be fertile soil, and collaborations with a variety of artists led to playing the local circuit and gaining experience as a live performer. Today, Richter juggles a range of sonic projects, performing in clubs, composing music for contemporary dance, designing sound for film and the visual arts, and producing recorded pieces across a number of genres.
Movement: Doan Thanh Toan We Were Born Soft (pw:breath18)
As a performing artist, Đoàn Thanh Toàn (he him/they them) finds dance at the convergence of community, justice, and feminist queer world-making. All bodies carry histories, intersectional identities, and potential – Toan's works acknowledge and empower the arrays that the dancing bodies lie on. While focusing on politicized realities, Toan also seeks values in the nature of movements and emotional exchange between the choreographer, dancers, and audience. Toan was trained in Contemporary Indian dance with Ananya Dance Theater, and African-based movement with Brown Spirit Ensemble led by choreographer Patricia Brown. Born and raised in Quang Ngai, Toan is currently based Ho Chi Minh city. Here, they have performed at MoT+++, San Art, and A. Farm in solo performances as well as collaborative projects with other incredible sound, performance, and visual artists.
In addition to performance, Toan also facilitates workshops that foster communal connection through movement and dance. They hope to engage with queer feminist communities in Vietnam through activism and the arts. Toan also works as a project coordinator, facilitator, interpreter, and writer.
Visuals: Ngo Ky Duyen
Jo or Ngô Kỳ Duyên is a Saigonese visual artist whose work is associated with moving images, virtual reality, augmented reality, new media and conceptual art. She also leads the “A Space Virtual” project. With the media and design background, she aims to reach more audiences in a stronger narrative form about social justice and sustainability matters with high-tech support and advocate for the creative community to go beyond the traditional mediums.
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Undecided Productions leads the logistics and curation of the event, we are a not-for-profit art productions organization, based in Europe and Hanoi and specialising in cultural exchange projects supporting contemporary artists.
Since partially relocating to Hanoi, Undecided has facilitated conversations with local, international and interregional artists and organisations in the form of events, residencies and assistance in production. We prioritise initiatives that are socially engaged and sensitive, with a long-term focus, particularly if they are conceived by young, emerging artists. As managers we support artists' needs and create connections between wonderful, like-minded humans.
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