On Sofa #10: How to Touch the Elephant – Material-based Artistic Research into Post-Agent Orange Landscapes in Vietnam
03 PM – 06 PM, Sun 13 Sep 2026
HAS Library
T2.4, 2nd Floor, Complex 01
Alley 167 Tay Son Street, Hanoi
Registration link (The event is limited to 10 participants)
From the organizer:
On Sofa #10 invites artists and our friends from the creative community to join a multisensory, interactive workshop with artist Hiền Hoàng. The workshop is intended for artists, art practitioners, and those working in the cultural and social sectors who are interested in the long-term consequences of war, including the impacts of Agent Orange.
Exploring the ecological trauma left by Agent Orange in Vietnam, Hiền Hoàng uses artistic practice to ask: How can we touch landscapes affected by Agent Orange — to contemplate and bear witness to the pain and processes of healing held within the earth?
Ngẫm Tượng | How to Touch the Elephant is a reading performance combined with a workshop and discussion exploring the ecological trauma left by Agent Orange in Vietnam.
The programme consists of three parts:
1. Reading performance
The programme opens with a reading performance offering an introduction to my artistic research project Ngẫm Tượng, which explores matter and post-Dioxin landscapes in Vietnam.
Narrative in character, the performance introduces participants to practices of soil drawing, measuring electrical activity in soil, and translating data into sound. This section lasts approximately 15–20 minutes.
2. Soil-drawing & deep-listening workshop
Participants are invited to draw alongside me in a sound environment created from data collected from post-Dioxin landscapes, including Rừng Sác, Biên Hòa, and Quảng Trị. Together, we will listen and draw what we perceive onto a large shared roll of paper. Participants may also choose to work on individual sheets of paper.
3. Discussion
The final part opens into a discussion, inviting questions, responses, and reflection on the reading performance, the research process and project, as well as the practices of drawing and deep listening experienced during the workshop.
There may be a 2–5 minute break between each section.
Hiền Hoàng (1991) is an interdisciplinary artist working at the intersection of art, ecology, and material research. Her practice examines how matter records violence, care, and memory. She works with corroded metals, fungi, soil, archival photographs, and sensor-based systems to explore how trauma is held within both living and non-living bodies. By combining scientific instruments with intimate observation, Hoàng develops methods for making material transformations visible as forms of witnessing.
Her projects have been exhibited internationally at Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam (the Netherlands), Les Rencontres d’Arles (France), Photo London (UK), and other major media art festivals. In 2024, she received the Paul Huf Award, which led to her first solo exhibition at Foam.
Recent works include Garden of Entanglement (2024), which translates vibrational data from urban trees into sound, augmented reality, and sculptural forms; Scent from Heaven (2023), which explores the vulnerability and transformation of agarwood trees through CT imaging and EEG; and Across the Ocean (2023), an installation that reimagines family migration archives through distortion and performance.
Hiền Hoàng currently works between London, Hanoi, and Frankfurt am Main.
Note:
– This is a non-profit event. We encourage participants to support the artist with a small contribution from 150,000 VND as a gesture of appreciation. All proceeds will be given directly to the artist after the event.
– Doors will close at the scheduled start time (including for those who have registered). Please arrive on time to choose your seat.
– The event will be documented through photography and audio recording for archival, research, and communication purposes by the artist and Heritage Art Space. By attending, you consent to the use of this material.
Follow updates on event’s page.
