July 2018: Research in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, Vietnam:
The preliminary visit to Ho Chi Minh City was conducted by Ugoran to establish initial mapping before the more extensive research travel took place. At the end of July, Ugoran and Yudi Tajudin returned for a full week visit, traveling to both Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) and Hanoi. The travel was conducted to both deepening the contact with Vietnamese artists, initiating conversations with our collaborators, and to have a close study to the cultural history, imagination, and the future of contemporary Vietnam culture. In both cities, Ugoran and Yudi conducted several activities, theatre going activities, interviews and intensive discussions with some dance, theatre and visual artists from various generations.
Our findings strengthened broader point of connections between Vietnamese and Indonesian cultural field. Conscious on how the political history of both places at a first glance is seemingly located in a contrasting position, Ugoran and Yudi found the bourgeoning artistic ideas and praxis around historical consciousness of our own respective locations as a site of transnational encounters.