Repetition - Book "HOTEL CONTINENTAL SAIGON" 24×30cm movie, mixed media music stand 2014
HOTEL CONTINENTAL SAIGON
This picture was found from a bundle of old letters and photographs I acquired at a market in Ho Chi Minh City. It has a name and “17 Mai 1952” written on the reverse side. The picture shows a figure with pair of sunglasses, riding a bicycle that is still rare to this date in Ho Chi Minh. And from the looks of it, I assume that he belonged probably to an elite class society. The hotel behind him was constructed next to the opera house theater in 1888 during the French occupation era, in central part of Ho Chi Minh City. It is a renowned hotel where numerous known figures have stayed in. During the Vietnam War, the hotel was also known for being used by many international journalists. It is the hotel also noted for the location where Vietnam People's Army tanks were gathered in front of the entrance shortly after the war. The film was shot from the third floor window of this hotel.
REPETITION - BOOK
This work derives from utilizing various old snapshots found by chance, and shooting images from the same location in comparison to where the snapshots were actually taken. Filming from such overlapping settings, the videos reflect a transition in time by reaffirming the absence of the figures found in the old snapshots and their possible courses of existence. By presenting such passage of association, the work attempts to disclose a fluctuating dialogue between the past and the future in endless state of repetition.
