Once-channel video, 4k anamorphic, 5.1 surround sound.

Description

The feature film The Unburied Sounds of a Troubled Horizon closes the first section of the exhibition. The different elements that introduce the exhibition come together in this film: the sound-making Calder-like mobiles made from old bombs and the different ways of explaining how they ended up in Vietnam. The plot tells the story of Nguyệt, a Vietnamese woman, and of her ailing mother, who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the war.

Nguyệt barely makes a living from a scrapyard inherited from her deceased father. Unexploded bombs are part of her daily life and her surroundings. She transforms them into unique objects, and one day, by chance, she comes across an old issue of an American art journal and discovers Calder's work. Startled, she begins a quest to find out if she might be the reincarnation of the famous artist who died in 1976, a year after the withdrawal of the United States from Vietnam. Through the guidance of a shaman and a Buddhist monk, Nguyệt gets confirmation of her true identity and starts tuning her metal objects to make them emit special sounds and heal her poor mother.

Description is excerpted from “Tuan Andrew Nguyen. Our Ghosts Live in the Future” Exhibition, 2024.