HCMC exhibit post

The show would not have been possible without the heroic efforts of dear friend, Vietnamese architect Lê Nguyễn Hương Giang, on the left. She helped with the project from the beginning with the original fieldwork in 2010.
A custom in art exhibits in Vietnam is to send formal invitation cards. The invitation and the invitation list needs to be approved by government regulators. As a result, instead of "Sidewalk City" our show's title became convoluted.
A shot from the exhibition opening reception. We served guests fresh coconut water from a vendor's basket.
Giang explains the works to guests.
While we were not allowed to show "regular maps," our cinematic maps defied categories and was abled to be included.
Giang made Annette get an ao dai made at the last minute for the exhibition opening, as this would be a sign of respect to locals. It so happened that we got a purple one and this photo is what appeared on the front page of Vietnam's largest newspaper. I later learned that purple is a symbol of Vietnamese femininity which made the photo more locally compelling.
Because of keen interest in the show, we got requests to give a gallery talk to further explain the work and dialogue about the issues.
Good friend and reknowned Vietnamese architect, Namson Ngo, also participated in the gallery talk.
Annette was also invited to give a talk about the exhibition at the American Center at the US consulate in Ho Chi Minh City.

In January 2014, SLAB and Vietnamese architect Lê Nguyễn Hương Giang mounted a photography and digital video installation that took place at the Ho Chi Minh City Photography Association gallery. In the months preceding the exhibit, street vending had become a politically sensitive issue because of recent bloody clashes between vendors and police. The title of the show, the original venue, and the works that could be shown had to be changed.

Nevertheless, the arts provided a social space for the exhibition event which ended up creating a rich opportunity around which to further public discourse and re-shape narratives about vending and sidewalk space. We also experimented with several different social media strategies and found that in Vietnam, creating an exhibition Facebook page was the most effective.

HTV news story

VOV news radio interview

Tuổi Trẻ front page story

Tuổi Trẻ English story

documentary on national VTV

AsiaLife magazine feature

documentary TuoiTre Online