‘Ping Pong’ is the name of table tennis, also refers to a diplomatic term indicating a negotiation initiative from the Cold War.

Ping Pong is often mentioned as an artistic context swap in new geopolitical shifts; a somewhat joking way of saying by curators and organizers in exchange programs in East Asia.

Ping Pong – the performance art exchange program between Vietnam and Singapore is a practice that extends the chain of artistic interchanges among Southeast Asian countries, and more widely, East Asia. Economic recovery along with the expansion of diplomatic relations have supported and encouraged a new era of cultural and artistic exchanges in the region starting in the second half of the 1990s.

As a multi-interface art form that is flexible and open in dialogue and negotiation, always broadening the interactive space, performance art facilitates discovery, sharing, exchange and mutual understanding among communities, and among various historical, cultural and social backgrounds. An art form that can reside in all different spaces, interacting with all the senses, Performance Art does not depend on verbal and text, it further expands the possibilities of expression and forms of communication without limits. 

Neither encouraging the incorporation of Performance Art into the landscape of Live Arts nor ambitiously encroaching on the territory of experimental Performing Art, Ping Pong enlarges practice and encourages research that explores the nature of “performance art” in the compositional elements of a performance work such as sounds, smells, tastes, and rhythms; and more broadly, exploring the nature of “performance art” in reading, speaking, daily activities, painting, video camera movements, practicing body and spirit, and therapy, etc.

The program in Vietnam takes place from July 3 to July 15, 2024, including a series of performance art workshops led by project members, in-depth discussions and talks, field trips, and spontaneous interaction.

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Participating artists:

Bruce Quek

Eunice Lacaste

Nguyễn Thị Diệp

Nguyễn Hải Duy

Flinh

Kai Lam

Pat Toh

Nguyễn Đình Phương

Veronyka Lau

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The project is initiated by Jason Lim and Tran Luong, organized by the APD – Center for Art Patronage and Development.

Main sponsor: United Overseas Bank (Vietnam) Limited

Co-sponsored by UpGen Vietnam, The Ascott Limited/CapitaLand Investment