Jolin Tran
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Spatial Imaginations: The Reconstruction of Memory
In Nothing Ever Dies, Viet Thanh Nguyen argues that “all wars are fought twice, the first time on the battlefield, the second time in memory.” But I would argue that all wars are fought three times: the first time on the battlefield, the second time in memory, and the third in the imagination. The legacy of wars do not end when memories of war fade. Often, it breeds a new kind of war, the war of the unknown — one in which we spend our waking hours trying to reconstruct what had happened. The exhibition revolves around this framework: tracing the history of Vietnam to examine what had happened, exploring what had been remembered, and speculating the future by reimagining the country in 2150.
In conceptualizing the exhibition, three different forms of memory play out simultaneously. The exhibition is made up of three components: the first traces the history of Vietnam through a slide projection of archival photos, the second recounts the history of Vietnam through narration, and the third offers an experience through the transformation of the room as a way of situating the visitors in the future. In each of these three components — the past, the present, and the future — are interwoven, creating a multifaceted reality.
M.Arch Thesis — Exhibition
Advisors: Brian McLaren (chair), Nicole Huber (chair) & Junichi Satoh