Kim-Sanh Châu / MIDLAND

Tio’tia:ke / Mooniyang / Montréal

In a distant, fictional Vietnam, the echoes of pop music on cassette tape reverberate against the sounds of modern Vietnamese rap. Châu Kim-Sanh inhabits this space, metamorphosing through bodily states generated by the presence of coloured neon lights. Of this evening blue erupts a purpleness: “bầu trời màu tím xẩm” – an uncertain translation. Eyes closed, the neon haze returns her to the sensation of her ancestral land. Saigon, like many cities in South-East Asia, is flushed with these vivid lights. Here, embodied memory and the imaginary take a ride on a Honda Dream II motorcycle, across a humid sky whose wetness whips the face.

BLEU NÉON is a solo performed in its entirety from the squat position – used as a cultural, political, and aesthetic symbol of Asian being. Audio recordings bespeckle the choreography, navigating between fantasized nostalgia, loss of language and sexual objectification – all three widely experienced by Asian diasporic populations. In Southeast Asia, rap culture is increasingly popular – giving a voice to a population marked by silence. Rap here is a prayer.

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FREE Vietnamese Rap Concert for Babies (with Chaû Kim-Sanh and Chittakone Baccam)

In this intimate concert for babies, multidisciplinary artist Châu Kim-Sanh raps in a broken-Vietnamese, learnt on the internet. Her imaginary landscape unfolds, where purple suns and blue Saigonese mountains intertwine… But do we say núi or sơn for mountain? Her long-time friend, Chittakone Baccam, will accompany her on this journey, weaving deep Asian beats into the fabric of the performance. Together, they have been exploring themes of diasporic nostalgia through various artistic mediums, including dance, music, and film. This rap concert for babies explores themes of diasporic nostalgia as a tender, rhythmic poem dedicated to babies and second-generation immigrants who, like Kim-Sanh, have lost their language along the way (and are finding it again!)

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Now Live – PuSh Play with Kim-Sanh Châu

Check out Kim-Sanh Châu’s conversation with PuSh Artistic Director Gabrielle Martin on the PuSh Play Podcast

Residencies

Villa Saigon and Dancenter (Vietnam)
MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels), Maison de la culture Marie Uguay, CCOV

Financial Support

Conseil des arts de Montreal, Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Canada Council for the Arts, FTA

Media Sponsor