UNSPEAKABLE MEMORY - TO CHOU CHOU FROM TEXAS, MISS PEACOCK (2000-2001)
Even thirty years after the Vietnam War ended, the war and the ideological conflict that lay behind it are absent from public debate. Particularly South Vietnam’s role is regarded as taboo. Photographs from the period are reserved for family albums and private collections. Sue Hajdu collected photographs about the Vietnam War and the swinging Saigon of the 1960s and ’70s. The first installation contains snapshots that a South Vietnamese officer made in Texas. He photographed himself in front of historic monuments and in a Western theme park, apparently during a language course that preceded military training in the U.S. On the backs he wrote messages for his Vietnamese girlfriend. The second installation consists of 130 images of Miss Peacock, a film star in the worldly Saigon of the 1960s. At the time, such photos were collected by film fans. Both installations offer a glimpse into a time that present-day Vietnam, ruled by the North, regards as degenerate.
