How to Touch the Elephant was presented as an online reading performance at esea contemporary’s Off-Centre on 22nd September. Sharing the research with an audience is always a pleasure for me. My warmest thanks go to Xiaowen Zhu, director of esea contemporary, and her team for their support and for the deep conversation that followed. And of course, hugs to everyone who came and shared the conversation with us.The reading performance was recorded and can be watched again, together with my conversation with Xiaowen.
The reading was special for me since I was just finishing my second field trip in Vietnam, my second “touch” of the once violated landscapes. This time, I had immense support from many people: anh Tuấn, chị Từ Phương Thảo, anh Sơn and his comrades at Division 370 of the Vietnamese Air Force, and my mom. Visiting Biên Hoà Airbase, the largest dioxin hotspot in Vietnam, was an unforgettable experience, especially in learning how complex and difficult the healing of the soil is.
Cần Giờ, on the other hand, left an uneasy taste. This once small fishing village, affected (even if only slightly) by Agent Orange and herbicides during the war, is now on its way to becoming a coastal extension: the sea is being filled with concrete and sand. The shore is now closed off to local people, kept only for the owners of the new luxury houses and villas. A sudden feeling of loss and uncertainty washed over me. Like the dogs roaming around the artificial sand hills, I found myself gazing at a faraway horizon. I wonder if the future will also sound like the screaming of the sand machines…
I hope these notes don’t make your afternoon melancholic. On a brighter tone: How to Touch the Elephant was awarded with 2026 Hyundai Award for excellence in Sustainability and Creative at the Royal College of Art London, I recently graduated with an MRes (Master of Research), and have taken the first steps to extend my research, into participatory practice with a pilot workshop at Heritage Art Space (Hanoi, Vietnam), and into material casting during my residency at Kulturfabrik Esch-sur-Alzette in Luxembourg.
In November, Asia Bistro will be shown at Museum Gunzenhauser in Chemnitz, Germany, and Garden of Entanglement at the EU Pavilion during the Hanoi Festival of Creativity and Design 2026. Made in Rice will also be part of the festival, shown at Đồng Xuân Market, Hanoi.
So I hope we will see each other soon, somewhere along the journey of finding the touch.
