Virtual Reverie: Echoes of a Forgotten Utopia

CGI reconstruction of the Vietnam Soviet Friendship Palace as a stage for five hip-hop dancers, projected on a papier-mâché screen.

Virtual Reverie: Echoes of a Forgotten Utopia is a video installation exploring contemporary life through the remnants of socialist architecture and monuments. Using CGI, the work reconstructs the Vietnam Soviet Friendship Palace of Culture and Labour in Hanoi as a stage for five hip-hop dancers, who move between historical memory and the present.

It also incorporates a 3D scan of a Lenin statue once erected in Vilnius, Lithuania, whose removal in 1991 symbolized the collapse of socialism and the restoration of independence. Through the dancers' interactions with these reconstructed sites and objects, the work reflects on how historical ideologies and memories are transformed within contemporary landscapes.

The projection is presented on a textured papier-mâché screen inspired by traditional Vietnamese mask making techniques.