TEXT TO FRAGMENTS OF SKY

Right in the heart of Hanoi stands the so-called Pen Tower. It resembles a paintbrush, with its head pointing towards the sky, and it is stationed on a stony mound representing earth. The tower itself carries the inscription ‘Tả Thanh Thiên’, roughly meaning ‘writing on the blue sky’. The words are reminiscent of the unwavering picture of Confucian scholars in bygone days. They symbolise the highest resolve and willpower of a truly righteous human. The words could also be taken to figuratively mean extraordinary dreams that can only find proper expression by writing on the sky.

The performance, retracing the profound act of ‘Tả Thanh Thiên’, is not directly interested in the sky as such; it rather seeks out the fragments of its mirror image. It finds them on various reflective surfaces such as window facades in buildings, screens, or street puddles. The video installation as well as the live performances show the artist who writes these exclamations, messages, questions, desires, and confessions. Is the blue sky of yore still the same one today?