Article 14.1
Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
Article 14.1, Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Between 1 and 2 million people fled Vietnam at the fall of Saigon. Of this it is estimated that 500,000 people perished at sea. Decades later, hope still lingers for many of those that have survive. Without a body how can one be so sure?
For 10 days, artist Phuong Ngo will live in public view on the same supplies his parents had on their boat, occupying his time by folding origami boats out of hell bank notes. Audience members are invited to also partake in the folding of boats. While doing so they will have the opportunity to listen to narrative recordings from other Vietnamese refugees.
At the conclusion of Article 14.1 the paper boats will be burnt in honour those who were lost and continue to be lost at sea.
Essay by Julian Burnside HERE
Missing, 1985
An action of mourning for half a million Vietnamese
2019
Museum of Contemporary Art Australia & Sydney Festival
14 - 23 January 2019
Boat Burning Ceremony: Wednesday 23 January, 6–9pm MCA forecourt
Image credit: Jacquie Manning
2015
Mons European Capital of Culture & Punctum Inc.
Migratory Complex
18 - 28 June 2015, La Maison Folie, Mons, Belgium
Punctum was selected as the Australian organisation representing experimental and participatory art form practice as part of MONS 2015 - European Capital of Culture program.
Punctum’s Migratory Complex was a three year cultural exchange and presentation initiative between artists associated with Punctum in Australia and artists associated with La Maison Folie in Belgium. It culminated in ten days ‘en folie’ where art events, installations, performances, gatherings and experiments activated La Maison Folie as part of MONS 2015 celebrations.
Migratory Complex celebrated the cultural diversity informing contemporary art making in Australia and marked the course for rich, reciprocal collaborations between the two organisations. Punctum's Migratory Complex was directed and curated with the view to increase the potential for artistic endeavour, discovery, creation and long term exchange between Australia and Belgium artists and audiences.
"Unpredictable environments, unexpected structures, nomadic geographies, holding rooms, gathering points, repositories, refuges and accommodations,12 artists, 4 cultural exchanges, a complex of emerging art forms and a breadth of works inhabited La Maison Folie in unanticipated ways for MONS 2015." Jude Anderson
Concept, Artistic Direction, co-curator: Jude Anderson
Associated Curator: Deborah Ratliff
With: (Australia) Jude Anderson, Bindi Cole, Nadia Cusimano, Paul Gazzola, Lyndal Jones, Sabina Maselli, Phuong Ngo, Katie Sfetkidis, Hiromi Tango, Erkki Veltheim, Daniel Crooks and Creative Producer - Joe Pickett, Nici Wright
With: (Belgium) Paola Bartoletti, Aubéline Barbieux, Romain Meun, Damien Petitot, Gaetan Rusquet, Fleur Sizaire, a body of dancers, a group of musicians, and graduating artists from the Mons University/School of Arts
2014
Next Wave Festival
Next Wave Festival 2014 (16 April – 11 May) was a rallying call for a New Grand Narrative. Spanning 28 days, the Festival began with a series of talks and parties to frame the Festival, as well as the launch of keynote initiative Blak Wave; seven new art projects, a rollicking talks series and a new publication imagining the future of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art. The main program saw artists present contemporary art with edge all over the city; on stages and in galleries, in corridors and bathrooms, on building facades, through subways, in carparks and on the Yarra.
More info HERE
Photos and video courtesy of Next Wave, Eugyeene Teh and Carmel Louise
