Exhibition "The Imagination Portrait" _ Vietnam

Invitation
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Installation exhibition:
“THE IMAGINATION PORTRAIT”

Of: Tran Huynh Trieu An, Nguyen Vo Ngoc Diem, Hoang Cuc Phuong

From June 20^th, 2008 to June 27^th, 2008 – 9AM to 9PM
IDECAF exhibition room – 31 Thai Van Lung Street, Dist.1, HCMC, Viet Nam
Private view: 6.30PM on June 20^th, 2008 – At IDECAF exhibition room with a small cocktail

“The imagination portrait” is a massive combination where shows what people transforms between human faces and psychological feelings within the connection of its modular system. “The imagination portrait” stands as a “connected structure” between many masks people create within themselves, true or untrue, real or imagination… How can we be close together without understanding the people on the other side?
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05 June 2008
You are all welcome with lots of wine and beer and have funs for all night long. Regards,
An Tran

REFLECTION-IMAGE / PERFORMANCE - Performed by Tran Huynh Trieu An

“Human actually contains many broken pieces”- Unknown.

Have you ever looked at yourself in the mirror and wondered if you have another face? And the face you are seeing yourself with is just a random fragmented piece? Your body and soul are materialized from broken pieces. So is your fate. Pieces. Like a mirror shattered into space. The reflection in that mirror and the image outside are pieces wandering and searching for their missing parts so as to achieve harmony, not just in the mind, but more precisely, harmony among the sentimental, mental, and physical pieces as a whole

A mirror piece cannot mirror itself, and thus, these broken pieces see themselves through the reflection in others. They only have a few tens of years to float and roam in space and time, to look at themselves and reflect before they fade away, splinter and become dust.
How long would it take for Alice to realize that there was no such thing as Wonderland where a cat could go without a face if it did not want to? Has it ever crossed your mind that the face you carry in life might be different when you are dead? It could also be very different from the face you see everyday in the mirror, and different from that which you suppose to be yours.



REFLECTION - IMAGE
Written by NGUYEN THI MINH NGOC
Translated by Nguyen Ngoc Minh Chau
Performed by Tran Huynh Trieu An


ONE – DON’T HIDE
Tears are not from my eyes
Down your own face, they’re rolling
The truth is not that ugly
Please don’t hide
How can you cover the sun with such small hands?
Don’t lock yourself within the darkness of fear
Your solitude will crush me inside


TWO – DON’T WALK AWAY FROM ME
How could you destroy the body in which I still live?
Don’t you blow out the only flicker of flame in my soul?
Because then, the last ray of hope in you will vanish
Don’t walk away from me
Because I’m the mirror reflecting you
Please pretend there is no difference between us
Please pretend that you simply can’t leave me.


THREE - REFLECTION
I’m the mirror reflecting you
That reflection is my soul
It smiles when I’m happy
And cries with my sadness
Oh, who’s there that looks like me?
Merging into that reflection in a blur
Even for just a fragile moment
I could not ask for more


FOUR – WE ARE ONE
Love birds are always side by side
Just like a pair of phoenix singing their song
Like a bamboo standing close to the blooming apricot blossom.
Like a duet of flute and harp
What would be the meaning of your life?
If one day I stopped breathing
Once we’ve become one
Losing you, agony, would break my heart!


FIVE – BROKEN
I’m the mirror reflecting you
I dare you to break it
Imagine flowers in storms
Traceless disappearances of the moon and stars
The sky’s black despair
Eruption of volcanoes
A crack on the earth, a desolate life

SIX – END
Don’t lock yourself within the darkness of fear
Your solitude will crush me inside
Please pretend there is no difference between us
Please pretend that you simply can’t leave me
I’m the mirror reflecting you
The reflection is my soul
What would be the meaning of your life?
If one day I stopped breathing
I dare you to break the mirror

I dare you to break it


------ The End -------

The Talent Prize Final Event takes off on the 25th of October at 19:30 in Vietnamese Art and Culture Exhibition Centre, 2 Hoa Lu, Van Ho, Hanoi.

Rhizome II - on AsiaLife magazine

Rhizome is a philosophical concept developed by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari in their Capitalism and Schizophrenia (1972-1980) project. It is what Deleuze calls an "image of thought," based on the botanical rhizome, that apprehends multiplicities.

Rhizome as a mode of knowledge

Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari used the term "rhizome" to describe theory and research that allows for multiple, non-hierarchical entry and exit points in data representation and interpretation. In A Thousand Plateaus, they opposed it to an arborescent conception of knowledge, which worked with dualist categories and binary choices. A rhizome works with horizontal and trans-species connections, while an arborescent model works with vertical and linear connections. Their use of the "orchid and the wasp" was taken from the biological concept of mutualism, in which two different species interact together to form a multiplicity (i.e. a unity that is multiple in itself). Horizontal gene transfer would also be a good illustration.

Rhizome theory is also gaining currency in the educational field, as a means of framing knowledge creation and validation in the online era. In 'Innovate - Journal of Online Education, Vol. 4, Issue 5', Dave Cormier criticizes the limitations of the expert-centered pedagogical planning and publishing cycle and posits instead a rhizomatic model of learning. In this rhizomatic model, knowledge is negotiated, and the learning experience is a social as well as a personal knowledge creation process with mutable goals and constantly negotiated premises. The rhizome metaphor, which represents a critical leap in coping with the loss of a canon against which to compare, judge, and value knowledge, may be particularly apt as a model for disciplines on the bleeding edge where the canon is fluid and knowledge is a moving target.

This performance portrays human in its own rhizome, in the horizontal and vertical connections.

Location: AsiaLife October 2008 - Eden Mall, 104 Nguyen Hue Blvd, HCMC, Vietnam
Performed by Tran Huynh Trieu An
Photographed by Fred Wissink
Written by Tom DiChristopher