DIACRITIC
"English has none. German has öne nötable öne. Spañish has at least one ñotable one too. French has sévéral." - Designorati
hort and to the point. Latin roots: dia (through, between, apart, across) and crit (to separate, discern, judge). To distinguish and clarify. Diacritics, for example, are the typographic marks used in the written Vietnamese signifying differences in tone, vowel and consanant. For example, my birth name, Trần Trọng Đạt requires all three. This site focuses primarily on contemporary art in its relation with design, media, language and other topics.
Currently, diacritic consists of only weblog. Until I can put some time into a reorganization and design, the proper documentation my earlier work on this site will have to wait. I can update the weblog quicker than I can produce finished works for exhibition.
Tin tức: diacritic.org và R. Streitmatter-Trần là hoạ sĩ và giảng viên ở Việt Nam. Website này chứa đựng những thông tin, những tác phẩm nghệ thuật, những ý tưởng, những quy trình suy nghĩ và làm việc của tôi.
ME
R. Streitmatter-Tran (b. 1972, Bien Hoa, Vietnam) is an artist living and working in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. He received his degree in the Studio for Interrelated Media (SIM) at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston. His work, solo and collaborative, has been exhibited in several cities in the United States, Europe and Asia including the 52nd Venice Biennale, 2007 Shenzhen and Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture, the Singapore Biennale 2006, the 2004 Gwangju Biennale, 2005 Pocheon Asian Art Festival, ZKM in Karlsruhe, Germany, Asia Art Now at Arario Beijing, the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin, the Blue Space Gallery in Ho Chi Minh City, the 7th Asiatopia Performance Art Festival in Bangkok, Art Tech Media 06 in Barcelona. He is an Asia Pacific correspondent for the Madrid-based arts magazine Art.Es and and Ho Chi Minh City editor for Contemporary. He was awarded the 2005 Martell Contemporary Asian Art Research Grant in 2005 with the Asia Art Archive in Hong Kong for his year-long research project, Mediating the Mekong. He was Teaching Fellow at Harvard University (2000-2004), conducted media arts research at the MIT Media Lab (2000), Visiting Lecturer at the Ho Chi Minh Fine Arts University in 2003 and currently Lecturer at RMIT Vietnam.
RESEARCH
My current research focuses on media and cultural production in Southeast Asia. Current issues explored in my work include memory, popular media, war & tourism, exile and transition, language, and narrative. I am a contributing editor for Contempory Magazine and a correspondent for the Madrid-based magazine, Art.Es. In 2005, I was a speaker at the Harvard Project for Asian and International Relations (HPAIR) at the Mori Center in Tokyo on Alternative Arts Spaces in the Mekong region. I continue to work on personal research and projects spanning the Greater Mekong Sub-region (Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos and China) often focusing upon the relationships among information, media infrastructures and contemporary arts production. The research project that became "Mediating the Mekong" was awarded the 2005 Martell Contemporary Asian Art Research Grant from the Asian Art Archive in Hong Kong.
MOGAS STATION
Mogas Station is a group of international creators (artists and architects) based in Ho Chi Minh City, working to promote and present contemporary art in Vietnam. Its members came together in 2005 to create Ạart, the very first artist initiated bilingual contemporary art magazine in English and Vietnamese. In parallel with publishing Ạart magazine, Mogas Station pursues a collective artistic reflection which aims to the realization of collaborative art works. Their first major contemporary art work was launched at the Singapore Biennale 2006. Three installations titled LZ (Landing Zones) were realized at two official sites of the Biennale in tandem with the Ạart magazine launch. The second major work, Rokovoko, debuts at the 52nd Venice Biennale in June 2007 as a part of the Migration Addicts project organized by Shanghai-based curator Biljana Ciric.
Mogas Station is (L-R): Sandrine Llouquet, Vu Lien Phuong, R. Streitmatter-Tran, Bertrand Peret, Tam Vi Pho, Gulschan Gothel, Hoang Duong Cam, and Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba (not pictured)
PROJECTONE
The idea for a performance art collaborative in Saigon began in the spring of 2002. In December 2003, ProjectOne launched their first projects (a total of 4 separate exhibitions in 4 locations in one month and the organization of a contemporary arts panel discussion at the fine arts university). The core of the group consists of five artists from diverse backgrounds from media to fashion, poetry to painting. These artists currently explore creative expression in video, installation, film, sound art, and experimental performance and theater. P1 open to new members, particularly from fields such as programming, architecture, film and criticism.
FUTURE PROJECTS:
Currently looking for short-term arts residencies in Asia and Europe. Perhaps lending support to regional curators. And a project to send me to the US (my mother misses me).
SOME PROJECTS:
2009
† Co-curator, Asia Pacific Triennial (APT6)
2008
† Wonder, Singapore Biennale 2008 † Post- Đổi Mới: Vietnamese Art After 1990, Singapore Art Museum † Coffee, Cigarettes and Pad Thai: Contemporary Art in Southeast Asia, Eslite Gallery, Taiwan † Farewell to Post-Colonialism, Third Guangzhou Triennial † The Mekong Art and Culture Project Journal. Issue 2: Curatorial Practices The Mekong Art and Culture Project
2007
† Rokovoko. A Mogas Station Project within the Migration Addicts Exhibition curated by Biljana Ciric for the 52nd Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy. † Thermocline: New Asian Waves. ZKM, Center for Art and Media in Karlsuhe, Germany.† Urban Attractors, Private Distractors with Angie Eng. Eyebeam, New York City. † Asia Art Now Seoul and Beijing.† Exquisite Crisis and Encounters Asia Pacific American Institute, New York University.† Microscopic Sound (sound & video live performance) Collaboration with Rob Cianchi as a part of Wonderful Weekend at Theatreworks, Singapore.† Future Perfect Tense Ongoing project development. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. † Creative Connections with ArtNetworkAsia (ANA) Mobilising Arts Communities (MAC) project. HCMC, Vietnam. † Future of Imagination 4 (FOI4) Singapore.
2006
Reflow Exhibition. Java Gallery, Phnom Penh. Exhibition of new paintings with ProjectOne member, Bui Cong Khanh.† Bangkok Experimental Film Festival (BEFF4), † Art Tech Media 06, Barcelona † Thailand New Media Arts Festival 2006, Bangkok, † S*H*A*M with Xin Chao My Darling!at the Stone & Water Supplemental Space in Anyang, Korea, † Mediating the Mekong. (Research and Presentation) Contemporary Art in the Sub-Mekong region at the Asia Art Archive in Hong Kong † Presentation. ALBB in HCMC † LZ & A.ART (Publication and Installation). Singapore Biennale 2006.
2005
06x60x600 photo project. six international curators, 60 artists, 600 photos. exhibition replicated in six countries † Projectone group exhibition at the French Cultural Centre, HCMC † Orange (installation). Hugh Lane Gallery. Dublin, Ireland † Missed Connections (installation). Blue Space Gallery, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam † Missed Connections (video) screens in Vermont, New York and Nantes, France † Group exhibition. Gallery Wowalls, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia † Land of Milk and Honey. Installation using live honey bees. HCMC. † Pocheon Asian Art Festival (PAAF2005). Photography and performance in Korea. † Hard Copy (Performance with Chaw Ei Thein) Asiatopia 2005, Bangkok, Thailand.
2004
Gitmo/Satchmo (Performance): Gwangju Biennale 2004; 2004 Seoul Performance Art Congress † Orange Lounge, a new media resource by the Orange County Museum of Art † NetVideoLab, a multinational video art project funded by ArtNetworkAsia † Body frame/Video frame (video installation) L'Espace in Hanoi, made possible by the Alliance Français. † Fact, Fiction, Faction. Research on phenomena in Southeast Asian media. Presentations were given in Chiang Mai and Bangkok.
CONTACT:
You can contact me at rst@diacritic.org
