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Film Screening and Artist Talk with Artist Nguyen Trinh Thi in Berlin

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Screening and talk by Nguyen Trinh Thi in Berlin 1

Vietnamese artist Nguyen Trinh Thi will hold two short film screenings and an artist talk as part of the Artists-in-Berlin Program (Berliner Künstlerprogramm) on 18 February at daadgalerie in Berlin, Germany.

The two short films that will be screened are “Letters from Panduranga” (with which the artist won a Prudential Eye award), and “Landscape Series #1”. Both films have been screened at various museums and studios in France, Russia, Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam.

“Letters from Panduranga” is an essay film portraying a Cham community living in Ninh Thuan, Vietnam, whose territory is threatened by the government’s construction of two nuclear power plants. Known as “Panduranga”, it is the last surviving territory of the ancient matriarchal kingdom of Champa. Acting as an ethnologist, Nguyen Trinh Thi explores the issues related to speech and history as well as new forms of colonialism.

The film is screened from 6 February to 19 March at daadgalerie (Monday-Saturday, 11-18h).

Screenshot from "Letters from Panduranga". Image courtesy of Nguyen Trinh Thi
Screenshot from “Letters from Panduranga”. Image courtesy of Nguyen Trinh Thi

“Landscape Series #1” is a video installation made up of hundreds of images in which anonymous persons were pointing to one direction, with the exact posture, indicating “a past event, the location of something gone, something lost or missing”. In the artist’s words:

“As the journey starts, wide empty landscapes make one wonder what one is looking for. A mysterious object? A crime scene? Something horrifying? The scenes are getting more and more specific, but they do not lead to any concrete solution – only an injury in place of a metaphor. […] We are left knowing nothing about the people, their specific thoughts or feelings, only with their repetitious sameness […], which seems to be indicating a direction, a way forward out of the past, a fictional journey.”

Video installation "Landscape Series #1". Image courtesy of Nguyen Trinh Thi
Video installation “Landscape Series #1”. Image courtesy of Nguyen Trinh Thi

After the screenings, Nguyen Trinh Thi will have a discussion with Dr. May Adadol Ingawanij from the Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media of the University of Westminster.

*Detailed program:

18.02.16
18h30:
Filmvorführung
Letters from Panduranga (2015, 35 min)
Landscape Series #1 (2013, 5 min.)
19h15:
Künstlergespräch
Nguyen Trinh Thi &
Dr. May Adadol Ingawanij,
Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media
University of Westminster

06.02.16 – 19.03
Mon-Sat, 11-18h:
Letters from Panduranga

Nguyen Trinh Thi is an independent filmmaker and video/media artist based in Hanoi. Her diverse practice has consistently investigated the role of memory in the necessary unveiling of hidden, displaced or misinterpreted histories; and examined the position of artists in the Vietnamese society. She is founder and director of Hanoi DOCLAB, an independent center for documentary film and the moving image art in Hanoi since 2009.

The Berliner Künstlerprogramm is one of the most renowned international programs offering grants to artists in the fields of visual arts, literature, music and film.

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