VietNamNet Bridge – Nora A.Taylor has been a familiar name in Vietnamese art circles for nearly 20 years. She is using her one-month summer vacation in Vietnam to research performance art in the country. Taylor talked with Sports and Culture newspaper about performance art in Vietnam.

Q: What is your definition of performance art?

Taylor: It is the art of using the bodies of artists as the tools of performance. Sometimes it is called body art or live art. But in Vietnam, performance art is understood more broadly. It comprises all kinds of performances, from the use of artists’ bodies as pillars to large-scale performances with dancers, music and light.

Q: Could you tell us about your research of performance art in Vietnam?

Taylor: I’m interested in performances of individual artists, who use very simple tools or irreducible things, which is closer to live art rather than works with large backgrounds like Dao Anh Khanh performs.

I’m also interested in experimental performances, artworks and music works that challenge traditional arts and artworks which are a process, which means that final works are not the final goal.

Performance art has a close connection to the idea about the process of an artwork, and that is why I’m interested in this art.

Q: Which Vietnamese artists are you paying attention to?

Taylor: I always admire Ly Hoang Ly. Her performances are always strong. Recently, I’ve become a fan of Nguyen Huy An and his works with dirty materials and graphite. Both of them use some materials besides their bodies but their works are rich in imagination, directness and humanity.

Q: What aspects of performance art in Vietnam are you focusing on in your research?

Taylor: The way artists invest their hearts and souls in performances. I don’t pay attention to showy expressions because that thing looks like acting.

A performance by Dao Anh Khanh.

Q: Vietnam doesn’t have just a single systematic research work about contemporary art, including performance art, and this fact seems to have bad impacts on the practice of contemporary art in general and performance art in particular in Vietnam. What do you think about it?

Taylor: Performance art in Vietnam is mentioned as a stage in the development process of contemporary art like installation art, video art, idea art or other forms of more controversial art. Many young artists do practice performance art regularly, they just to try it. Some see performance art as the final frontier of contemporary art, but in fact, it is a very difficult art and the practitioners don’t seriously see it as a means of expression.

VietNamNet/TT&VH