there are situations that make us forget about the condition

Featuring works by Sapphire Hồng Sen, Quỳnh Đông, Nguyễn Văn Thuỷ, Phụ Lục, IN:ACT 2022 Bến Ngọc Thuỵ, Vũ Đức Toàn

A collection of video documentations of some artists’ performances or some (un)published video elements of art projects.

Sapphire Hồng Sen, Chị em mình là một gia đình (we sisters are a family) (2023) | 9:25

Once upon a time, there was an air hostess who sits and fucks. Oh, sorry everyone, I told the wrong story. There is a very loitering flight attendant who goes to the streets to pose like flight attendants dummies. She kept posing like that until she was kicked out. After being fired many times, she decided to work as an employee at Ô Cách ciné.

Quỳnh Đông, Going to Eat Phở (2022) (2022) | 26:00

A vague link she made between the research of Nguyễn Tuân’s literature and cuisine in general, noodle soup – phở in particular. Somehow, from there, Quỳnh Đông employed this frame of reference to a painting depicting breakfast by Impressionist artist Renoir. In this video, she chose The Appendix as actors and asked them to choose a common phở diner partly according to descriptions in Nguyễn Tuân’s literature.

Nguyễn Văn Thuỷ, The Arm (2022) | 20:00

Summer 2022 in Kassel, within the framework of Documenta 15, at art exhibition spaces, a person with one purple and pink arm appeared. At the same place, 50 years ago, at Documenta 13, a strange dog which had a different-colored fur on one leg compared to the other three legs appeared.

The Appendix, Judgement – The last card (2020) | 50:00

Representing the host is 30 sets of keys for 30 warehouses containing 30 works from the “Skylines with Flying People” project which was carried out in 2019. The tarot reading for them takes place from the beginning until the end.

Phụ Lục, Upstream Water (2022) | 7:00

On the last day before the “gold card*” expires. We decided to take a day trip to the upper reaches of the Fulda River to cool off, to swim, to relieve stress, whatever. During the months of preparing for the work, we encountered a lot of problems, so we started swearing and swearing more. It is a very cold water, upstream should be very tight. We only lasted a few minutes before we had to climb ashore. This happiness is short-lived, but it is something really meaningful for this European trip. Before going back, each of us took a bottle of water upstream, don’t know if we will use it but obviously now it is a very easy and popular trick in the way of art now… luckily it was used to fill a cup on a conference room table at the Frankfurt University of the Arts.

(*) a special card for artists participating in Documenta.

500 brothers and sisters from IN:ACT 2022 Ngọc Thuỵ Harbor, Đồng Tâm Hiệp Lực (Working Together) (2022) | 19:00

A performance workshop initiated by artist Vũ Đức Toàn on learning and imitating the renowned video work Tango by Zbigniew Rybczynski took place on August 31, 2022 at artist Nguyễn Mạnh Đức’s studio (Bát Tràng ancient village) within the framework of IN:ACT 2022.

Vũ Đức Toàn, Smoking Room (2023) | 15:00

In a studio near the foot of the thin Wutong Mountains between Shenzhen and Guangdong, people gather to watch the next performance art. The owner of the studio is a beautiful, elegant female painter who walks up to a few people smoking and instructs them on whether they can smoke in the next room or in the lobby and garden. This room is where the performance is going to take place, which was a large room, but a small part of the room as well as the library has many books and vinyl records along with some antique vinyl players. Curator announces that the next performance art is about to begin. A tall artist, wearing glasses, a bit silly and somewhat melancholy entered the room. He slowly pulled out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, sat down and lit the first cigarette, then the second, and began to talk. In the story he also said goodbye to everyone.

Sapphire Hồng Sen is a flight attendant and a cinema staff. 

Quỳnh Đông was born in 1982 in Hải Phòng. She works and lives in Zurich. Through performance art, she enjoys telling picture stories with pieces from many different cultures. She works with the body as an object and a surface to interpret everything possible.

Nguyễn Văn Thuỷ (b. 1982, Hanoi) is a visual artist and experimental art practice. In his works, Thủy is interested in cultural life, traditional values ​​and rituals in the Northern countryside.

Phụ Lục là nhóm thực hành nghệ thuật trình diễn tại Hà Nội được 6 thành viên sáng lập vào năm 2010, hiện, tiếp tục hoạt động với 4 thành viên chính là Nguyễn Huy An, Vũ Đức Toàn, Nguyễn Song và Ngô Thành Bắc.

Group IN:ACT 2022 Ngọc Thuỵ Dock workshop participating in Working Together including: Nhi Lê, Nguyễn Vũ Trụ, Nhung Đinh, Dương Thanh Quang, Nguyễn Hoàng Anh, Phạm Hải, Đặng Thuỳ Anh, Quang Quang, Vũ Đức Toàn, Flinh, Nguyễn Thị Diệp, Angel Lan, Vân Đơ.

Vũ Đức Toàn graduated from Vietnam University of Fine Arts with a bachelor’s degree in Art Theories, History and Criticism in 2007, Vũ Đức Toàn is a visual artist and a co-founder of The Appendix. He currently works and lives in Hanoi. His works are mostly installations and performances, and has always engaged in the relation between the audience and the performers, the societal ceremonies, as well as historical periods that ended or are the bridges between the past and the present.

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