47 Days, Sound-less by Vietnamese artist Nguyễn Trinh Thi is a film that explores the relationships between sound and silence, vision, language, colours and their absence. Nguyễn identifies “peripheries”—including natural landscapes used as backdrops, uncredited characters and soundtracks from American and Vietnamese movies—that reveal more-than-human perspectives. Offering new ways of looking and listening, 47 Days, Sound-less invites audiences to reflect on the inextricable relationship between a place and its inhabitants.
Nguyễn Trinh Thi: 47 Days, Sound-less is commissioned by the Han Nefkens Foundation, Mori Art Museum, M+ Hong Kong and Singapore Art Museum—Moving Image Commission 2021. The commission aims to support contemporary artistic production within the field of the moving image and is directed at artists of Asian origin, nationality or living in Asia.
Commissioned by the Han Nefkens Foundation, Mori Art Museum, M+, Hong Kong and Singapore Art Museum
about the artist
Nguyễn Trinh Thi is a Hanoi-based experimental filmmaker and moving image/media artist whose practice over the last decade has consistently engaged with the history and memory of Vietnam, with a great interest in finding innovative ways to connect cinema and the moving image with sound practices, performance and alternative forms of storytelling. Nguyễn uses montage to compose her work, drawing on different media, from her own audio and visual recordings to found footage and still images from postcards, photography, newsreels, Hollywood films and ethnographic footage. Her practice currently explores the power of sound and listening, and the multiple relations between image, sound, and space, with ongoing interests in memory, representation, landscape, indigeneity, and ecology.
Image credit: Nguyễn Trinh Thi. Still of 47 Days, Sound-less. 2024. Image courtesy of the artist.
Artwork highlight
Related events
CURATOR TOUR
Join SAM curator Syaheedah Iskandar as she shares about the exhibition on the following dates:
• 2 Mar | Sat | 3.30pm*
• 6 Apr | Sat | 3.30pm*
*Singapore Sign Language (SgSL) interpretation will be provided.
Scroll down for more exhibition-related programmes!
Resources
Find out more about the exhibition in 47 Days, Sound-less:
Sensing through the Moving Image, an essay by curator Syaheedah Iskandar.
Video, two screens and mirrors Video: three-channel projection, 16:9, 16:9 and 5:2 aspect ratios, black and white and colour, sound (stereo), 30 min
47 Days, Sound-less by Vietnamese artist Nguyễn Trinh Thi is a film that explores the relationships between sound and silence, vision, language, colours and their absence. Nguyễn identifies “peripheries”—including natural landscapes used as backdrops, uncredited characters and soundtracks from American and Vietnamese movies—that reveal more-than-human perspectives. Offering new ways of looking and listening, 47 Days, Sound-less invites audiences to reflect on the inextricable relationship between a place and its inhabitants.
47 Days, Sound-less is commissioned by the Han Nefkens Foundation, Mori Art Museum, M+, Hong Kong and Singapore Art Museum. Nguyễn Trinh Thi is the recipient of the inaugural edition of the Han Nefkens Foundation, Mori Art Museum, M+, Hong Kong and Singapore Art Museum – Moving Image Commission 2021 which aims to support contemporary artistic production within the field of moving images. It is directed at artists of Asian origin, nationality or living in Asia who have an established practice and solid trajectory.
