Artists to discuss Vietnamese history

Hanoi (VNA) – The Phu Luc (Appendix) artist group will interact with American historian Liam Kelley about Vietnamese history on July 17 at Hanoi Creativity City.

The Appendix group will introduce their performance art project that took place in December 2015.

The project explores a predetermined agenda that involves various confrontations with a complex history via a journey from Hanoi to HCM City on Thong Nhat train, with each member of the group carrying different allegorical objects of personal importance to them.

Meanwhile, historian Kelley will make a presentation entitled Visualizing Vietnam: From the Past to the Present.

Appendix, founded in 2010 by six artists, is an active performance art group with Vu Duc Toan, Nguyen Huy An, Nguyen Song and Ngo Thanh Bac as its four core members.

In the usual office uniform of black trousers and white shirts, they perform repetitive, programmed actions or movements over the course of several hours, utilising everyday objects as props.

Appendix has participated in various local and international events including performance art festivals in the Republic of Korea and Singapore.

Kelley teaches Southeast Asian history at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He also researches and writes about Vietnamese history.

He has been researching about the efforts to discover the origins of the Vietnamese by various people in modern times, ranging from French scholars during the colonial period to Vietnamese scholars in the post-colonial era. He is also co-founder of the Engaging with Vietnam Conference Series, being organised since 2010.

The event is a part of a seminar series of a project entitled Skylines with Flying People 3. The project aims to increase awareness about contemporary Vietnam and promote dialogue and collaboration amongst different fields and communities.

The seminar series is being held from March to December 2016 at different venues in Hanoi.

Each seminar follows subject matters that are relevant to the 12 sub-projects, with discussions being conducted by artists and experts in other disciplines such as history, archaeology and sociology.

The interaction will be held from 4.30pm to 7pm in English and Vietnamese at 12th floor, No1 Luong Yen Street.-VNA