Interview: Christian Falsnaes

Christian Falsnaes: Trash Mind, 2009.

What was the Trash Mind project?

Trash Mind was a collaboration between myself and the artists Le Van Son and Le Nguyen Manh. I was invited to conceive and produce a new work in collaboration with Vietnamese artists and it ended up being a performance.

How did you experience working in Vietnam?

At first I was very excited and positive, mainly because of the interest I felt from the local people and the good discussions I had with Son and Manh. Then, as production began, I ended up being quite frustrated. Technical problems of all sorts seem to be the norm and even the smallest things turns out to be a challenging task. In the end though, as everything somehow turned out fine and we got the response from the audience, it was worth it all. I just had to adjust the project and my expectations to the situation and the possibilities.

Christian Falsnaes: Trash Mind, 2009.		Christian Falsnaes: Trash Mind, 2009.

What are the major cultural differences between Denmark and Vietnam?

My knowledge of Vietnamese culture is quite limited since I have only been there once, but I did get a feeling of some differences. While Danish people are encouraged to be innovative, creative and individual, Vietnamese people are encouraged to do as they are told and are punished if they don’t. The political oppression is present, but on the other hand people seem creative in their ways to navigate around the system.

How does Vietnamese culture affect the art production in Vietnam?

The above mentioned tendency not to encourage innovation as much as copies of the norm, results in endless variations of the same ideas. Furthermore, many artists seem to reproduce very romantic notions of Vietnamese culture instead of relating to the actual situation. That is quite strange to me, since I find contemporary Vietnamese society very interesting. With my karaoke video I tried to expose that discrepancy.

Christian Falsnaes, Le Van Son & Le Nguyen Hanh: Trash Mind, 2009.		Christian Falsnaes, Le Van Son & Le Nguyen Hanh: Trash Mind, 2009.		Christian Falsnaes, Le Van Son & Le Nguyen Hanh: Trash Mind, 2009.

What are the working conditions for Vietnamese artists today?

What the artists I met told me is that it is very difficult to exhibit in Hanoi. The art scene is way too small and there is a considerable lack of project spaces and experimental platforms. Limited access to production facilities, especially technical and media equipment is another issue. It was a great opportunity for Manh and Son, for instance, to be able to work with video and sound in relation to our project.

How was your experience collaborating with Vietnamese artists?

Even though our artistic references and experience were very different, I have the feeling that there was a good communication. I am used to work with people that have a basic understanding of contemporary art that is similar to mine, but in Vietnam we had to start at a very basic level to find a mutual starting point. We had a lot of fun in the process despite and sometimes because of numerous misunderstandings.

Christian Falsnaes, Le Van Son & Le Nguyen Hanh: Trash Mind, 2009.		Christian Falsnaes, Le Van Son & Le Nguyen Hanh: Trash Mind, 2009.		Christian Falsnaes, Le Van Son & Le Nguyen Hanh: Trash Mind, 2009.

How much of your project was Danish/western, and how much of it was Vietnamese?

That is difficult to say. I guess my part was influenced by a western approach, but related to Vietnamese and Asian pop culture. Manh and Son both use symbols and materials with specific meanings in Vietnamese art, such as the flour or the fish, but formally their pieces relied on a western performance tradition. In our mutual video and performance, where we somehow reenacted a fictive futile television show in a Vietnamese street context, I think the cultural blend got interesting.

How was your performance received?

The response was extremely positive. Before I came to Vietnam, I did a little research on contemporary Vietnamese art, in particular performance art. I got the feeling that there is a strong tendency towards a very serious and rather pretentious style that is inspired by sixties and seventies performance on one hand and traditional Asian theater on the other. That picture was confirmed by the artists I met in Hanoi. What many people told me after the show was that they were positively moved by the unpretentious humoristic and absurd approach of our performance and the fact that we tried to deal with contemporary issues.

Le Van Son: Trash Mind, 2009.		Christian Falsnaes, Le Van Son & Le Nguyen Hanh: Trash Mind, 2009.

Le Nguyen Manh: Trash Mind, 2009.		Le Van Son: Trash Mind, 2009.

There seems to be quite a positive resonance for performance art in Vietnam. Why is that?

There is a worldwide positive resonance at the moment and it is very much in vogue to do performance. At the same time I think that performance is considered to be free of commercial interest and in a place like Vietnam, where the artists are forced to copy old master paintings in order to make money, performance might feel liberating. Performance can be made without big production facilities as well, since you only need your body, so it is an easy way to experiment if you don’t have money and equipment. Performance has an implicit directness that makes it easy to relate and react to. I think the renewal of performance art is one of the most interesting artistic developments of my generation. With the relation to media- pop- and information culture, performance has become a new interesting and fresh media. I guess that is the case in Vietnam as well.

What kind of potential do you think Vietnamese art has?

I think Vietnamese art has the same potential as anywhere else. It could become an important part of the public discourse, but at the moment it needs to build up an interesting scene. I could imagine that things would change very fast provided the right circumstances occur.

Do you plan to go back to Vietnam?

I would love to!

Christian Falsnaes: Trash Mind, 2009.