The Seventh Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

Can you tell us how this project came about and what its aims are? This project began in early 2010. Basically, Viet Nam The World Tour (VNTWT) was envisioned as an anti-nationalism-advertising-campaign disguised as a rogue nation-branding campaign or, better yet, a nation ‘un-branding’ campaign. We became interested in utilising one of the most branded national identities in history — Vietnam. Intervention: it’s something that a lot of our work attempts to do. History is a hefty, almost overwhelming and constricting set of conditions handed down to any given generation. It’s a series of archives that are definitive. For us it’s not about rewriting history, but more about shifting, or interrupting the archive a little bit, so that it’s not so definitive or anchored. Basically, the campaign aims to destabilise our notions of what it means to subscribe to the idea of nationality and nationalism within the linear and continual context of history. How to take a brand — in this case, specifically, a national identity — and move it completely outside of its definitions and constructions as a national identity, without saying or mentioning the conditions which it has fallen victim to. To not mention something, to not regard it, means to strip it of its significance. That’s what we’re posing. For example, many people talk about issues of centre versus periphery. We don’t engage in that dialogue, because to engage means to reify these notions of a ‘centre’. We believe that there are no peripheries. We’re getting to a point where this ‘brand’ has to almost become consumable, a commodity that could be acquired and owned. We’ve talked about it becoming a clothing brand, or a spray-paint brand, where people could actually disassociate the national brand and, in its place, begin to associate it with a consumer brand. What is your process of collaborating with different cultural producers? On a very superficial level, we work with artists in the same way that advertising companies would work with celebrities. On a deeper level, there are artists and producers out there that are doing some amazing things that we are genuinely interested in being a part of. You have worked with El Mac a number of times. What interests you about his work? We love that El Mac has brought photorealist portraiture into the street art mix. His technical and artistic skill level is unmatched. His portraits look like they’re moving. El Mac is also very involved in speaking about issues of immigration. He expresses his concerns in very poetic and thoughtful ways. It comes out in his choice of subject matter and his process of painting portraits of real people. Tell us about the collaboration between El Mac and Shamsia Hassani. It’s almost as if ‘collaboration’ has become our artistic medium. We use it as a conceptual platform to talk about many things. We love its ability to transpire, metamorphose and amalgamate. We love interacting and sharing ideas with people and getting people involved in discussing those ideas with us. And we love being the catalyst for collaborations, because it leads to a new trajectory in practices that often develops into even larger, more layered approaches and art works. This collaboration began with our interest in migration, particularly current migration and immigration issues related to war. Both El Mac and Shamsia have very unique knowledge and personal experiences with these issues, and through the process of creating a mural with The Propeller Group we have been able to share and begin an important dialogue that we hope will continue and expand. Another interesting point of this project is that although El Mac has painted numerous large portraits in public and has collaborated with several artists all over the world, this is the first time he’s painted a portrait of the person who is collaborating with him. For us this became a beautiful and transformative process that spoke about presence, gesture and image, and the power that these elements in combination can have in public space. You have spoken about wanting to cross borders with your work. Is this how you see this collaboration linking to the VNTWT project? The VNTWT project is about transcending borders. To mention borders is to reiterate and reify the very notion. We don’t feel the need to cross borders, we crush ’em. Interviewed by Maud Page, September 2012. THE PROPELLER GROUP An interview 180