» Screening and discussion: LEGACIES

Screening and discussion with May Adadol Indawanij, Tram Luong and Van Do

“What does a legacy taste, smell, sound, feel, or look like?

“Legacies are that which we carry, sometimes with pride and sometimes with shame, as the basis of social bonding, whether as things a people embodies with pride or as an enduring pain, a burden, some kind of ghost.

“Legacies as: the pre-modern artistic, cultural, linguistic and religious heritages of the place and land that you were born into and raised in; the legacies of colonisation, and the spectres of nations and nationalisms, during and after colonialism, and their continuing shaping force; the legacies of the modern art/film histories, narratives, and ways of knowing that shaped you, and that bring an ambivalence and a desire to undo.”

Each artist in CIRCUIT’s 2022/23 program of artist cinema commissions, Edith Amituanai, Martin Sagadin, Ukrit Sa-nguanhai, Pati Tyrell, Sriwhana Spong, was invited to make a short film articulating the artist’s own personal response to a series of propositions about potential meaning and resonance of the term “legacies” by CIRCUIT’s 2022/23 curator-at- large, Dr May Adadol Ingawanij.

The questions posed by Dr May Adadol Indawanij to the artists mirrored the same struggles inherent in the endeavour of bringing the exhibition White Noise to fruition. Namely, to curate from an existing collection that deals with the complexity of the histories one belongs or are tied to, whether by choice or circumstance. As the final installment of a series of public programs conceived for White Noise, Legacies also marks the conclusion of a six-month journey for this exhibition. As the curtains draw to a close, lingering questions remain, beckoning our contemplation.

The screening of the moving image works was followed by a curatorial discussion between Dr May Adadol Indawanij, Prof Tram Luong and curator Van Do.

The program was held concurrently at Fulbright University Vietnam and Á Space, and co-organized by Nguyen Art Foundation and CIRCUIT (New Zealand).

*The video documentation of the discussion is in English only.