Dustin Duong
Projects

The Way We Walk

Media Video Installation 2020
Project Description

The Way We Walk

Do Vietnamese people walk differently? This is the absurd question that triggered The Way We Walk, a film made in Saigon and across the Mekong region. Participants subject themselves to interviews while walking on a treadmill, offering preposterous theories and anecdotes that demonstrate their love for the nation while discussing the implications of regional politics. Nicolas Cilins worked with co-conspirator Dustin Đức Thịnh Dương to explore the distance between the fantasy of the motherland and the realities of a developing nation. The treadmill serves as a 'Trojan horse' to question policies of censorship, functioning as a recording device for individual confidences in a country where citizens often shy away from explicit critical speech. Presented as a two-screen video installation, the work questions our perception of the political status quo and the gaze we cast upon cultural identity.
Direct Communication