Stage III | The Journey

Ho Chi Minh Trail

Time: June 12, 2010 – July 3

Location: Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, China

 

The June program was a journey realized through walking, rehearsing, artistic and textual production, dialogue and recording. Throughout the journey, local and international participants were invited to perform a process of confessing and flushing-out to explore issues of globalization and local, Empire and The Third World, ideology and politics, art and theory, and other critical questions that concern us today.

To achieve this state of existence we would rather admit our position as cultural travelers - we don’t pretend a romantic level of interaction or seek to reach the impossible ‘goal’ of being on the same page with the locals (any imagined success on this aspect will nevertheless be a mirage).

What the participants facing along the journey were something beyond China and Southeast Asia, beyond artistic production and other realms of activity. Every local and international participant was simultaneously host and guest to engage with subjective and local interpretations of geopolitics, historical and war memories, and cultural and ethnic conflicts encountered along the way, thereby revealing the absurdity and futility of political correctness. While the journey was realized mostly by bus transportation, there has also a walking segment through a critical Ho Chi Minh Trail portion in Laos.

June 7, 2010

The second “column” of the Ho Chi Minh Trail Project (MadeIn Company Representative Xu Zhen, Zhang Hui, Song Yi and Luo Wenhong) set off for Nanning.

12:00 – 13:00, June 9, 2010 

The second column of the Ho Chi Minh Trail crosses the China-Vietnam border at the Friendship Pass (Hữu Nghị Quan).

June 11, 2010

A press conference is held at the academic lecture theater of the National Art Museum of China to mark the launch of the Ho Chi Minh Trail project.

11:00 – 12:00, June 12, 2010 

The second column of the Ho Chi Minh Trail Project crosses the Vietnam-Cambodia border, they are met by Nguyễn Như Huy who joined the project team.

June 12, 2010

The first column of the Ho Chi Minh Trail Project (Lu Jie, Gao Shiming, Wang Jianwei, Lu Xinghua, Liu Wei, Wang Jiahao, Dong Jun, Weng Zhenqi, Du Keke, Zhang Xin, Jiang Yizhou) departs from Beijing Capital Airport, arriving that same evening in Pnom Penh, Cambodia.

14:00 – 16:00, June 13, 2010 

The first and the second columns rendezvous at the Royal Palace in Pnom Penh.

June 13-17, 2010 

The Ho Chi Minh Project team explores Pnom Penh: dialogues were held at the SaSa Gallery, Bophona Audiovisual Resource Center and the Meta House cultural center; numerous breakfast meetings were convened and many spontaneous internal discussions held; Nguyễn Như Huy gave a lecture to the project team; the project team visited the Bophona Audiovisual Resource Center, the Reyum Institute, the Cambodia-Vietnam Friendship Monument, the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and the Choeung Ek Killing Fields.

14:12-15:30, June 17, 2010

The Ho Chi Minh Project team crosses the Cambodia-Vietnam border.

June 17-19, 2010

The Ho Chi Minh Project team explores Ho Chi Minh City: a dialogue is held at the Himiko visual café; numerous breakfast meeting were convened that frequently turned into internal discussions; the project team held breakfast meetings, other small spontaneous internal meetings and conversations with people on the ground, the three communication modes intersecting and combining into their own form; Lu Xinghua led the project team through a reading of Agamben’s “What is the Contemprary?”; the project team additionally visited the office of DIA Projects, the Ho Chi Minh City University of Fine Arts and the Independence Palace.  

23:00-13:30, June 19-20, 2010 

Luo Wenhong leaves the group in Ho Chi Minh City.

23:00-13:30, June 19-20, 2010 

The Ho Chi Minh Trail Project team takes the train from Ho Chi Minh City to Da Nang.

June 20-22, 2010

The Ho Chi Minh Trail Project team travels to Hue: a dialogue is held at the New Space Foundation; numerous breakfast meetings are held that frequently turned into spontaneous internal discussions; the project team paid a visit to the artist and collector Boi Tran; team visits the Imperial City of Hue.

18:00, June 21, 2010

Wang Jianwei leaves the group in Hue. Wu Shanzhuan and Johnson Chang join the Ho Chi Minh Trail Project team.

10:00, June 22, 2010

Brian Doan joins the Ho Chi Minh Project team in Hue.

17:00-19:00, June 22, 2010 

The Ho Chi Minh Trail Project team arrives at the site of the former Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone.

11:00 -13:00, June 23, 2010

The Ho Chi Minh Project team crosses the Vietnam-Lao border.

June 23, 2010

The Ho Chi Minh Trail Project team explores the city of Dansavan: Brian Doan prepared a lecture for the project team; Gao Shiming showed the project team a selection of student works from the China Academy of Art which led to a comprehensive discussion on the state of contemporary art education in China.

6:00-13:00, June 24, 2010

In Dansavan-Ban Dong, the Ho Chi Minh Trail Project team delegation follows along the path of the old Ho Chi Minh Trail heading west from the Dansavan Bus Station, formally walking 25km in complete silence.

June 24-25, 2010

The Ho Chi Minh Trail Project team moved on to the city of Savannakhet. Lu Xinghua gave a lecture to the project team titled “The coming arrival of the Left”.

June 25-28, 2010

The Ho Chi Minh Trail Project team explores Vientiane: a dialogue is held with the Lao Academy of Social Sciences; numerous breakfast meetings are held that frequently turned into spontaneous internal discussions; Wang Jiahao gives a lecture to the project team titled “The Linkages Between Architectural Criticism and Modes of Production”; project team visits the Kaysone Phomvihane Memorial.

7:00-9:00, June 28, 2010

The second column of the Ho Chi Minh Trail Project (MadeIn Company Representative Xu Zhen, Zhang Hui and Song Yi) crosses the Lao-Vietnam border.

17:50 -18:50, June 28, 2010

The first column (Lu Jie, Gao Shiming, Wu Shanzhuan, Lu Xinghua, Liu Wei, Wang Jiahao, Dong Jun, Weng Zhenqi, Du Keke, Zhang Xin, Jiang Yizhou) crosses the Lao-Vietnam border.

20:00, June 28, 2010

In Hanoi, Vietnam, The second column joins the first column. Johnson Chang departed. Chen Yun joins The Ho Chi Minh Trail Project team.

June 28 - July 2, 2010

The Ho Chi Minh Trail Project team explores Hanoi: dialogues are held at the Goethe Institut and Nasan House; numerous breakfast meetings are held that frequently turned into spontaneous internal discussions; an additional dialogue is held with the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences; Natasha gives an account of her husband’s life (the late Vietnamese artist Vũ Dân Tân), his travels to the Soviet Union, China and Cuba and the legend of his “never setting foot on capitalist soil” his entire life; the project team visits the Vietnam University of Fine Art, the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and Ho Chi Minh Trail Museum.

16:00, July 1, 2010

Wu Shanzhuan leaves the group in Hanoi.

10:00, Junly 2, 2010

Nguyễn Như Huy and Brian Doan leave the group in Hanoi.

14:00, July 2, 2010

The Ho Chi Minh Trail Project team crosses the Vietnam-China border at Friendship Pass.

Morning, July 3, 2010

Nanning, China. The Ho Chi Minh Trail Project team divides into three teams at the Nanning Railway Station each heading separate ways: one team to Beijing, one to Shanghai and one to Xi’an.

July 5, 2010

Chen Chieh-jen and Zheng Bo meet with the Ho Chi Minh Trail Project team that returned to Beijing. The project team holds a press conference at the Long March Canteen and invites the American scholar Steven Lee to give a lecture titled “Roar! China!”.

July, 2010

Brian Doan returns to retrace the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

Late July, 2010

Lu Jie, Gao Shiming, Chen Chieh-jen, Liu Wei, MadeIn Company Representative Xu Zhen, Wang Jianwei, Zhang Hui and others begin discussions on the exhibition for the next project phase.

August, 2010

Nguyễn Như Huy establishes the independent art space Zero Station in Ho Chi Minh City.

September 4, 2010

In Beijing, the opening of “Long March Project – Ho Chi Minh Trail” at Long March Space is the first act of the 2010 Shanghai Biennale “Rehearsal”, in Beijing.

October 23, 2010

In Shanghai, the opening of “Long March Project – Ho Chi Minh Trail” at the Shanghai Art Museum is the first act of the 2010 Shanghai Biennale “Rehearsal”, in Shanghai.

Early-December 2010

Nguyễn Như Huy and Viet Le are invited to Beijing to carry out research and investigation.

December 13, 2010

At the Shanghai Art Museum, Nguyễn Như Huy and Viet Le are invited to lecture at the exhibition of the Shanghai Biennale, the lecture is titled “Long March Education: From ‘The Ho Chi Minh Trail’ to the site of ‘Rehearsal’”.