The community of 400,000 Jrai people – the biggest ethnic group of the Highlanders in Vietnam– are mostly divided into small villages inhabiting amid the forests, the high mountains and also mutually with Kinh people (the dominant group of Vietnamese population) in the area of more than 15,000 km2. This is also the hometown of artist Cong Tung, member of Art Labor Collective.
The project ‘Jrai Dew’ takes inspiration from the Jarai belief in the human and the cosmos. In their philosophy of existence, after death, the human will go through many stages to go back to their existence origin. The final stage is that they will transform into dew (ia ngôm in Jrai language) evaporating to the environment – the state of non-being – the beginning particles of new existence. Using various approach to research and artwork production, With Jrai Dew, Artlabor wants to look at Jarai culture as poetic and sustainable as their concept of dew.
Jrai Dew is our on-going project. We update our process of researching here.
THE LAUNCH OF JRAI DEW PROJECT: PAPET VILLAGE, GIA LAI PROVINCE, CENTRAL HIGHLAND, VIETNAM, JULY 2016
JARAI DEW HAMMOCK CAFE AT CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, WARSAW, 22 September 2016 – 8 January 2017
JARAI DEW HAMMOCK CAFE AT TIMES MUSEUM
JARAI DEW HAMMOCK CAFE at NTU CCA residency, 1-13 Dec, 2015
For one night in the park outside of NTU CCA, Art Labor invite you to meditate at the hammock café ‘Jarai Dew’ – the resting station commonly found on the highways between provinces as part of Vietnamese transportation culture. You will enjoy coffee freshly roasted from the collective member’s hometown farm in Gia Lai, Central Highlands, and participate in various activities: reading, listening, watching… The hammock swinging movement resembles to constant rhythm of the body during long-hour transportation, creates a simultaneous standstill yet in motion state. Jarai Dew Café is an introduction of Art Labor’s long-term project ‘Jarai Dew’ taking inspiration from Jarai belief in the human and the cosmos. In their philosophy, after death, the final stage of the journey back to their origin is transforming into dew (ia ngôm in Jarai language) evaporating to the environment – the state of non-being – the beginning particles of new existence.
8 DecemberDecember, 6pm - 10pm
at NTU CCA Singapore studios, block 38 Malan Road, Singapore
http://ntu.ccasingapore.org/residencies/art-labor/
Sketch for Jarai Dew hammock cafe
Sketch for Jarai Dew hammock cafe