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Ho Chi Minh Trail Project: Moving the Long Mountain Range
Submitted by Long March Project

Aims / Objective / Goals of project

Aims
To further the international march of the Long March Project, in an acknowledgement of the shared and complex cultural, political and social histories between China, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos, encouraging a greater understanding and international awareness of the similarities, differences, successes, failures, assumed factual histories of the relationships within this region

To engage the memory of this complicated network of diverse narratives, across various geographical, cultural and social divides, in the spirit of understanding the importance of a historical consciousness, deeply aware of the need to engage, with sensitivity, the complex lived experience of foreign occupation, political censorship, government control and social prejudice, in a subsequent embrace of human resilience acknowledging the capacity for humanity to renew their understanding of the intertwined perspectives of how yesterday informs today in preparation for a united tomorrow.

To set up a series of artistic and educational exchanges/discussions, facilitated by the Long March Project, in consultation with designated advisors across this region, in the hope that a sustained artistic and intellectual network is encouraged and supported in the sharing of ideas and artistic endeavors in each local artistic community

To showcase the results of this project at an international venue/s as an integral component of the Long March Project’s artistic vision

Motivations/Objective
The Long March Project fundamentally believes in the reinterpretation of history in the long-term development of contemporary perspectives on art, society and culture. The Ho Chi Minh Trail is a particular legacy, which holds philosophical similarities and complex metaphorical analogies to the Long March of Mao Zedong (1934-36), albeit the story of the Ho Chi Minh Trail is heavily fraught with strong divided historical perspectives (in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos) on the results, outcomes and motivations for the creation of this geographical pathway.

The Long March Project’s multifarious program is driven by the questioning of what is ‘contemporary’, how are ideas of tradition, cultural memory and associated social custom adapted or reinterpreted within the state of flux of the 21 Century. This region (China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos) holds particular vibrant historical narratives that have invariably influenced each other. This project provides an educative opportunity for creative practitioners to engage, come together and discuss how various shared historical and cultural influences and contexts have shaped their own opinions and roles as artists.

The Long March Project has grown from an arts organization of 4, to now incorporate a staff of 24, divided between dedicated departments (international, exhibitions, marketing and promotions). With this infrastructure, we are now in a unique position to enable our desire to initiate, develop and facilitate a productive and challenging dialogue between China and the broader Asian region, benefiting from the knowledge and experience we have collaboratively gained over the last 6 years of exhibiting internationally.

In undertaking research within the region, and in acknowledging and participating in the pioneering work of such organizations as Theatreworks and The Substation in Singapore, it is noted that there are significant art networks and communities that greatly value the opportunity to meet and discuss their work together. In speaking with many local artists and cultural community groups in China, Vietnam and Cambodia, many have expressed a strong desire to be able to share their conceptual ideas with each other, if only an opportunity presented itself to enable an introduction. It is in this vein that this particular project has been initiated.

In Vietnam there is a great lack of comparative study in the history of international philosophical and artistic ideas. The educative system is largely conducted via texts written by Vietnamese historians and access to information by foreign writers and thinkers is hugely lacking in the assessment of artistic concepts at the graduate level. In preliminary research undertaken in Phase One, in speaking with senior lecturers of the Ho Chi Minh Fine Arts Association, the Ho Chi Minh Fine Arts University, Hanoi University of Fine Arts, Hanoi University of Culture and the Centre for Research, Development and Support of Culture, it was noted that this project provides a great opportunity to see how local artistic resources can be translated into an international context and vice versa.

Brief description of project

The Long March Project began as an artistic investigation of cultural memory and historical consciousness determined in the wake of, and resulting mythologizing, of China’s revolutionary Long March of 1934-36. This historical pathway was re-traced by the founders of the Long March Project in 2002, serving not only as a geographical route, but also symbolic of a much larger philosophical and ideological pursuit engaging ideas behind the process of writing and remembering a cultural history, revolutionary memory and the struggle to articulate motivations of liberty, justice, nationhood, tradition and the meanings evoked in individual and collective action. There are many similar historical journeys that represent the resilience of the human spirit and though they are fraught with their own agendas and traumatic consequences, they are important cultural memories to which the possibility of a future is informed and can be given birth.

It is in this vein that the Ho Chi Minh Trail can also offer a metaphorical point of departure for artistic and educational discussion and imaginative collaboration. Though internationally understood as a logistical supply route created during the Second Indochina War (1954-75), which formed a vast network of passageways across China, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, this rhizomic map serves as a reflection of the fraught, interconnected, influential, overlapping histories of the region. This project seeks to engage the varying contexts of perspective from the artistic and educational communities within these countries, their stories pivotal to an overall understanding of the metaphorical legacy of this trail as a divergent journey, drawing relevant and pertinent comparisons with broader international movements of social thought, strategy and intervention.

For example, this particular region was the strategic battleground between the two Communist powers of China and the Soviet Union during the Second Indochina War. China’s decision to support Vietnam during this time was instrumental to Mao Zedong’s domestic argument to gather the masses against Imperialist forces encroaching its national borders (eg. USA). This strategic decision not only internationally presented China’s support for revolutionist forces in Vietnam, but also encouraged Mao’s domestic grand plans for ‘The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution’. Going back even further in time, the complex tale of conquest (eg. Kublai Khan’s attempt to invade Vietnam in the 13th Century; or Vietnam’s occupation of the People's Republic of Kampuchea in the 1980s); of cultural and intellectual exchange (eg. vassal relationship between the Cham Dynasty of Vietnam with Beijing), these are but a few historical examples, some of which are to this day are remembered with a prolonged cultural animosity.

Can such events of the past be objectively re-written, re-interpreted so as to confront, alleviate, or alter an understanding of historical consciousness? How can sensitive misgivings between cultural and social communities be creatively engaged so as to create new identifications, new possibilities of beneficial engagement where psychological and social prejudices are laid aside? How has the historical exchange of knowledge and ideas created, supported, or spurned a sense of mutual imaginings? There are many different interpretations of these variable histories to which visual art, maps and texts, to name but a few material examples, offer important and significant comparison.

The Ho Chi Minh Trail Project will continue the international journey of the Long March Project, a journey that has so far been realized as a conceptual, philosophical and physical examination of the relationship between past, present and future; between an understanding of assumption, stereotype and identity; between creation, production and market. The Ho Chi Minh Trail Project extends this contemporary campaign of critical discourse surrounding art and culture, investigating the potential common threads and divergent perspectives on lived and felt experience, and aims to be a progressive artistic and educational exercise built on the value of process and exchange, rather than an assumed investment in result and subsequent object making (though undoubtedly an inherent part of the process).

This project will involve multiple individuals (visual artists, writers, historians, film makers, performers, musicians etc), artistic organizations and institutions (public and private) from across this region and its diaspora. Discussions, lectures, public forums, informal screenings of historical and contemporary visual material, new and existing art works, performances, imaginings, texts - all will be created, shared, exhibited, documented, and distributed, in the spirit of artistic exchange that is recognized as foundationally paramount to the crucial relationship between culture and contemporary society.

This project aims to bring creative individuals in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Luang Prabang and Beijing into closer working proximity. The emphasis for this project is on process, and the need to build productive ongoing relationships and partnerships.

Research towards this project began in 2006. Zoe Butt, Director of International Programs, undertook a 3-month curatorial residency in Ho Chi Minh City in development of this project, working with the artistic community in Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi (November 07 – February 08), thanks to Asialink, Australia.

Methodology / Implementation of project

The ‘Ho Chi Minh Trail Project’ is a long-term artistic exercise with an emphasis on developing a broader network of artistic practice and intellectual exchange. In order to effectively initiate artistic collaborations and discussions, it is imperative where possible that face-to-face meetings and ongoing discussions are enabled between participants. This request of funds from Arts Network Asia would assist Phase Two of this project.

Project Management Structure for ‘Ho Chi Minh Trail Project’
Director: Lu Jie (Director of Long March Project)
Curatorial and Project Manager: Zoe Butt (Director, International Programs, Long March Project)
Curatorial and Exhibition Manager: Xiao Xiong (Artistic Director, Long March Project)
Curatorial and Research Assistant: Ting Ting Xu, Long March Project

PHASE ONE
Identify:
Key aims and motivations of project
Personally approach key advisors in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Siem Reap
Personally approach key institutions and organizations in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Siem Reap
Approach key funding bodies (Ford Foundation, Arts Network Asia, Goethe Institute)
Participants (artists, performers, writers, curators etc.)
Upload relevant findings online; commission update reports on project with strategic partners

PHASE TWO
Identify:
Approach key advisors in Phnom Penh and Luang Prabang
Personally approach key institutions and organizations in Phnom Penh and Luang Prabang
Potential collaborations / artistic exchange (artist, teacher, student) / discussions and forums
Key promotional bodies / information distributors for the ongoing documentation of these events

Implementation of proposed projects resulting from Phase One:

Yu Hong (Beijing) and Dinh Y Nhi (Hanoi) – two women of the same generation, both distinguished artists in their own right in each country. Each of their practices engages the presence of the female figure – how/which have women been considered symbols of perseverance and dedication to the revolutionary cause in each respective context? How is the memory of their role depicted and discussed today? One-month residency for Yu Hong in Hanoi. Subsequent exhibition of work at Long March Space, Beijing

Chen Qiulin (Beijing) with Le Viet Ha (Saigon) / Ha Thuc Phu Nam (Saigon) – three fiercely independent artists, who mine their own personal stories in their work through documentation. What is the role of documentation in their work? How is fact and fiction aestheticized in their practices? To what end are each of their cultural contexts remembered within an official history? How has rapid urbanization and continued government control over individual expression affected or brought about a kind of cultural amnesia in each of their respective creative and social environments? (video and film) 2 week collaboration/production in Saigon. Artist talk and viewing of works in Saigon.

OPEN CALL How can history be re-interpreted through the guise of traditional tropes and popular media? How can the communication channels of film, video and photography alter a perception of a political reality? How are ideas of the movement of people and ideas perpetuated through language? Open call for invitations, physically or in spirit, to be launched online and one evening, potentially at San Art (TBC). Projects to be subsequently assessed for potential exhibition, discussion, for potential involvement in ‘Imagining a past with no borders’ (could take place at any venue of the advisors). In order for this project to potentially travel – should the form of the work be limited in size and weight?

Borderless Futures (Part One)– Lecture/Seminar program (aimed to be held in partnership with Vietnam Foundation for the Arts; Danish Consulate Educational Program; Ho Chi Minh Fine Arts Association; China Academy of Art, Hangzhou – partners TBC). Program to be held in Saigon, Phnom Penh. Aim to subsequently propose this as pilot program for ongoing relationships between China, Vietnam and Cambodia educational institutions. This program would include screening of work in film and video. (30 day program – does not have to run consecutively). Selection of relevant artists, curators, historians, academics to provide presentations, seminars, workshops.

Exchange program: Vietnamese/Cambodian aspiring writer, curator, arts worker to be part of the Long March Project team in Beijing for one month.

PHASE THREE
Re-tracing of Ho Chi Minh Trail aka. Highway no. 1
Implementation of findings and individuals as a result of Phase Two

Time frame of project
April, 2008 – April 2010

Projected output of project (is it a workshop, a discussion, a showing etc)

STEP ONE
To be exhibited in each city of relevant artist, where possible (space/organization and license permitting). It is also desirable, funding permitting, that as many works/artists, tour/travel within these cities in order to present and discuss their work, which would take the following format:

Commissioned works by individual artists
Commissioned collaborations between artists
Series of discussion forums, working with local educational organizations (formal and informal) aimed at broadening knowledge of contemporary international artistic and theoretical practice, carefully chosen in relation to historical and cultural influences of each local context (eg. What is the role of the artist, the writer in motivation social change? What is a dissident artist in the 21st century, if we consider the role literature and art has played in 1980s China and 1920s Vietnam? What role did Chinese intellectuals play in the introduction of the Doi Moi policy – what are the comparative differences between the art periods after Doi Moi in Vietnam and the Open Door policy in China? What is the meaning of propaganda in contemporary Vietnam and China? Where are values given reference and historical example in the search for artistic freedom – Geneva Accords 1954; Hundred Flowers Campaign, 1956; public demonstrations in Eastern Europe in 1956)

STEP TWO
It is envisaged that this project’s outcomes (commissioned works, collaborations, texts) may potentially tour to international venues. The contemporary art of this particular region, in relation to the ‘Ho Chi Minh Trail’ Project has already been discussed with interest and support with several potential individuals and venues such as Hans Ulrich Obrist (Serpentine Gallery, London) and Sebastian Lopez (INIVA, London).

Who is your target audience for your project?

The target audience for the ‘Ho Chi Minh Trail Project’ is the local artistic community of each host city - Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, Luang Prabang and Beijing - local artist community consisting of practicing visual artists, students, lecturers, writers, poets, performers, arts workers and historians. Though these host cities are based in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and China, it is hoped that the diaspora of the Mekong Delta region, who live or work in these locations, will also participate in discussion forums and debates. This project is aimed at sharing a mutual learning of shared histories and contexts of artistic production; therefore lectures, panel discussion and informal gatherings will aim to include thematic points of interest and context to all.

How do you propose to disseminate information about the project to your target audience?

Take advantage of local networks and local experience
Through the appointed advisors within Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, who run their own local artistic/cultural organizations, we plan to take advantage of local email invitation lists, one-on-one meetings and extensions of personal invitations (where necessary). It is acknowledged that there is a need to listen to locals on how best to approach the people that you most want to attend and participate in events to be held in each city.

World Wide Web
Through out the history of the Long March Project, the use of the web as communicative, educational and promotional tool has been instrumental to the international accessibility and understanding of our on-going projects, initiatives and activities. The ‘Ho Chi Minh Trail’ project will have its own designated website, linked to the main ‘Long March Project’ site. The Long March Project also currently manages a blog page as part of its promotional and educational structure. This BBS blog program would also be used for this project.
www.longmarchspace.com
http://www.longmarchspace.com/bbs/read.php?tid=50

The websites belonging to the organizations of each designated advisor will also be linked to the above site. These corresponding sites will also link to the project, creating and broadening knowledge and awareness of this ongoing project.

Joint promotion
We would also seek the assistance of our international strategic partners, such as YISHU Journal of Contemporary Art; Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong; BizArt, Shanghai; in the joint promotion and ongoing update of the activities of the ‘Ho Chi Minh Trail Project’. These partners have previously assisted us in the documentation/publishing, promotion and general discussion of previous Long March projects, such as: ‘Yan’an Forum on Art and Literature (initiated by Cai Guo Qiang), 2006 with discussion published by YISHU; ‘First and Second Annual 25000 Best Exhibition of the Year Award’, in conjunction with Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong and BIzart, Shanghai.

How do you think your project will create impact on the cultures that you want to engage with?  

In discussion with the appointed advisors, and as a result of field research undertaken in Phase One of this project, it has become markedly apparent that there is a great desire, on the part of emerging and mid-career artists of this region, for more engagement and opportunity of access to international conceptual and artistic historical frameworks. This project will impact each local community in an engagement and remembering of a historical consciousness, pertinent to each locality. Several elderly Vietnamese artists (during recent interviews undertaken during Phase One of the project), who fought on the front line during the French occupation and the Vietnam War, are extremely concerned about the younger generations lack of awareness, knowledge and understanding of Vietnam’s recent complex history. The Long March Project, in facilitating this dialogue from a neutral point of view, can be seen as a mediator of sorts, presenting issues for discussion that could go beyond the factional politics that is inevitably a part of every social community. It is hoped that this desire to catalyse a collective cultural memory, resulting from a firm belief in the power of culture to instigate social change, can be made possible and indeed mutually beneficial in the development and support of a local contemporary artistic community.

How will it develop the field of your art form?

The Long March Project began in 2002 as an artistic experiment in the discussion of what it is to be a Chinese contemporary artist today. The philosophical and metaphorical pursuit of an international platform for the engagement of ideas of global, local, national, transnational, has been a steady and developing discourse largely given presentation due to the invitation of organizations and individuals in the US, EU and North Asia. The Long March Project now wish to initiate and work with cultural communities on a local level, within their region, in sharing their artistic experiences, in the hope of furthering the dialogue, awareness and indeed, international debate, on the ethics and modalities of contemporaneity. This project will see the art form of the Long March take on a new ‘march’, if you like, one that will see the re-interpretation of history and cultural tradition in new forms and language of exchange.

Optional - please provide past documentation of your other projects or your collaborator's other projects (text, visual, video/audio).  

Please visit the following links for further information on all collaborators:

Long March Project: www.longmarchspace.com
San Art: www.san-art.org
Centre for Khmer Studies: www.khmerstudies.org
Reyum Institute of Art and Culture: www.reyum.org