Reading Kieu with Father, performance

Vu often critically questions the relationship between the younger and the elder generation, the legacy of the past, subjecting the mixed, complex emotions of young Vietnamese towards tradition. In the performance “Nuoi” (Nurturing), which Vu performed with his father, the two men, identically dressed in black, sat in two small chairs at short distance. A third person approached the father and with a pair of tweezers, extracted a gray hair from his head and placed it on the artist's forehead so that it hung down over his eye. As the performance went on in total silence, hairs were arranged over the Vu’s eyes, looking like a silver curtain. In Vietnam, picking out grey hairs for an elderly is an intimate gesture of love and care, yet this loving and caring gesture takes a surprise turn as it slowly obstructs the vision of the younger one.
 
In “Doc Kieu” (“Reading Kieu”), (re-performed for “Liberation”), another awkward situation between father and son was created. Vu was laying down facing the pavement, while his father was laying on him, reading “Kieu”, the canon of traditional Vietnamese literature. Again, the two men did not communicate. Again, there was an element of serving the elders to the extend of self-sacrifice, holding a burdensome legacy without rebellion.

Vu’s ability to subject contradictory, love-hate relationships so typical for the Vietnamese psyche makes him one of the most interesting young artist in Vietnam.