Screening List

Man Makes Rain [Bui Cong Khanh | 2003]

Missed Connections [R. Streitmatter-Tran | 2004/2010]

Taste of Noodles [Sutthirat Som Suparinya | 2006]

Just a Second – The Khong Legend Trailer [Sutthirat Som Suparinya | 2003]

Art Sonje is pleased to announce Richard Streitmatter-Tran as the speaker for the 5th Art Sonje Workshop and Screening taking place in April 26-27, 2011. For the first session, Streitmatter-Tran, an artist, curator and founder of DIA/PROJECTS – an independent studio and contemporary art space in Ho Chi Minh City, will focus on the curatorial process of The Mekong Region, an exhibition platform presented at the Asia Pacific Triennial, to address issues such as national representation, or how to define art practices regionally, as in the concept of a Mekong Region or Asia Region. The second day will centre on the notion of dualities (action/reaction, polarities/divisions) and its presence in culture history, arts and sciences to reflect on the first year of DIA/PROJECTS and the types of collaborations/pairings being developed there.

Although the concept of ‘the Mekong’ as a region appears everywhere in documents on development cooperation, the term requires critical analysis because many fundamental questions remain about what it connotes. More fundamentally, do the societies in the geographical area we refer to as the Mekong region possess any distinct cultural identity? Given the Mekong River is one of Asia’s longest rivers – over 4000 kilometres, beginning in the Tibetan plateau in China and ending in the southern deltas of Vietnam- and one of the most biodiverse regions in the world in terms of biodiversity, it has been a site where there is a complex interweaving of cultures, particularly in terms of its assimilation of, and resistance to, religious, political and cultural influences from India and China, spanning many centuries. As a distinct region, the Mekong is a construct in which definitions have largely been created for convenience or specific utility:

After reflecting on this notion of constructed identity in relation to the Mekong Region, Streitmatter-Tran will explore notions of duality in relation to ideas of identity and territories of difference and similitude that inform reflections on hybridity and East and West binaries. The research into the roots and ramifications of this notion grounds the practices and collaborations Streitmatter-Tran has been developing through his Dia/Projects which he will also present as part of the 5th Art Sonje Workshop and Screening.