Chinh Ba is an interdisciplinary art practitioner, stage director and art organizer bases in Vietnam. Since 2019, he has been known as the founder of CAB Hoian, the culture and arts space which connects and facilitates the development of cultural and artistic activities between Hoi An and other cities. Since 2020, he has founded CAB Read project to develop reading culture and perceiving art for local public. And the newest is an experimental theater project TheaFter since 2022. During that time, he has organized and directed of many art programs such as CABCON in 2020 in Hoi An, curator of poetry+++ by MoTplus in 2020, the art residency project “anmai” in 2021 and 2022, the research project of modern dance history “More than a century of counteracting dance” in 2021 with Le Mai Anh and Dat Nguyen, Hoi An Reading Ambassador project since 2021, Arts for the Environment festival in 2022 in cooperation with the British Embassy and HHDL Quang Nam, the community documentary art project Hunting Treasure in 2022 and 2024…
He has composed and performed for many projects such as Palao 2018 by Ngo Thanh Phuong as an actor and music performer, Ballet Kieu 2020 by Ho Chi Minh City Ballet and Symphony Orchestra as a musician, Please give me a peaceful breakfast 2021 by Arthur Kuggeleyn as a producer, poetry writter and performer, and also been as content creator for Vietnam Dance Week by Vietnamese Dance Artists Association from 2023…
In practicing art, Chinh Ba often experiments with interdisciplinary art with complex reactions between poetry, dance, visual, theater, music, sound… Some of his bold independent projects include The Long Poem About Boundaries 2020 (poetry, performance), Boundaries 2020 (music, visual), Can Quac 2022 (interdisciplinary, dance), They ordered and rolled on the sand, seawave and tumbleweed 2022 (theater of the absurdity), Borderless Feedback 2024 (Performance across borders)…… His practices layer words, bodies and indigenous attributes. The cultural sediments of Central Vietnam and the wandering of cultural origins appear sultry, tense, ready to explode in the calmness often seen in the above practices.
In addition, he also experiments with humorous projects and works that bring a lot of joy such as: Bolero 2024 (Dance), Dạ! (poetry, installation art), Artist for sale 2022 (multinational performance), Doodle Playground 2021 (community visual work), An ant nests in an ant’s nest 2021 (poetry, installation art)… These works often have fun, maximal in minimal. With abstract surface formats, the practices contain layers of complex research and theory reflecting the existence, community behavior and his satirical view of those community reactions.
