Linh Le

A Day Like Any Other

11—18 January, 2023, Group Exhibition and Screening Event. Galerie Quynh (HCMC)

A Day Like Any Other offers glimpses into the current Vietnamese landscape as characterised by the relationship between human beings and their surroundings — one that could be both nurturing and hostile at the same time. In this context, “structures” emerge from specific phenomenological interventions rather than being systematic characteristics. One notable example of a landscape structure of our times is the plantation model in which the cultivation and development of one species drives out the others and, in turn, creates new diseases and problems. Similarly, a city, a forest, or a river is a landscape structure.

Phan Thảo Nguyên, Mekong Mechanical, 2012, single channel HD video, sound, 18:33 minutes. Still image courtesy of the artist.

Along with the championing of industrial forms of production and urbanisation, for millenia human beings have been actively reshaping the landscape on their own terms. Each moving-image work featured in this programme, varying in narrative, structure, and approach, conjures up fragments of the landscape of our times — one which is greatly disturbed by industrial production, colonial legacies, personal beliefs as well as wellness trends, and myths.

Trương Công Tùng, Magical Garden, 2012-ongoing, single-channel video, sound. Image courtesy of the artist.

A Day Like Any Other comprises a video art exhibition featuring works by Lêna Bùi, Phan Thảo Nguyên, Trương Công Tùng and a week-long screening event.