Manifesta purposely strives to keep its distance from what are often seen as the dominant centres of artistic production, instead seeking fresh and fertile terrain for the mapping of a new cultural topography.
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Tuan Andrew Nguyen, VN
The Sounds of Cannons, Familiar Like Sad Refrains (Đ ạ i Bác Nghe Quen Như Câu D ạ o Bu ồ n), 2021, © Tuan Andrew Nguyen. Photo © Manifesta 14 Prishtina / Majlinda Hoxha.
As idyllic as they may appear, post-conflict landscapes often bear witness to – and even perpetuate –the destruction of war. In Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, countries subjected to the most relentless aerial bombardment in the history of human warfare, this is still the case.
Since the end of the Vietnam War, over 120,000 people have been killed by the belated detonation of landmines and bombs. Drawing on the animist tradition, Tuan Andrew Nguyen’s work explores how such landscapes might be healed – from the unusual perspective of a bomb.
Possessed of both mind and spirit, the bomb considers how it came to be where it is and what might bring it closure – after decades lying underground waiting to fulfil its mission. It is accompanied in its reflection on history and the present by a famous song from the 1960s by Vietnamese songwriter and poet Trịnh Công Sơn, whose title translates as Lullaby of Cannons for the Night.