"How to be sweeper"

June - July, 2018. Hue city, Vietnam

Special thanks to  : K.L,  B.N, Dang Duy Phan, Bus team
Cameraman and photosgrapher : Dang Duy Phan & Sang Nguyen
Dong Duong Lang Du Project

"How To Be A Sweeper" was performed in Hue city, Vietnam in 2018 following the performances in Yangmingshan Mountain, Taiwan in 2015. The work references the Nguyen feudal dynasty, the last dynasty to leave a mark that constitutes Vietnamese distinct culture. From the 17th to the 20th century, the Nguyen Dynasty witnessed tremendous changes around Western cultural exchange via commercial trade, migration, education and religion. The leaders of the government were Queen Nam Phuong and Emperor Bao Dai, both of whom were educated in France since their childhood. The policies introduced by the late Nguyen dynasty, along with the French colonial apparatus, imposed colonial ideology on different aspects of Vietnamese life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Therefore, this period saw complex changes in politics, philosophical framework, architecture, societal structures that have influenced Vietnamese identity up to now.

In the series of performances, a group of people wearing old yellow pieces of cloth, moving and performing "Sweep" as an attempt to clean up the landscape, at the same time tracing that period’s history. The Yellow no.5 created a particular visual effect in nature while mentioning the recognizable color of the Nguyen Dynasty, the yellow scarf of Queen Nam Phuong, reminding us of the golden age and of the dreamy “revolutionary” efforts. The sites chosen for the performance have feng shui characteristics and structure the Hue citadel: Con Hen, Tinh Tam lake, Ngu Binh mountain, and Ky Lau.

I am well aware of Vietnam’s informational disclarity, as well as the literary romanticism and artistic intellectualism of Hue, where I was born. The concepts of "cleaning" and "clarifying" in information archiving are, in contrast, transparent and scientific. Therefore, I believe they are vital to the continuing transformation of the arts and literature.