The Room is a cross-disciplinary project and a collaboration between artist Nguyễn Linh Chi (Chi L. Nguyễn) and choreographer Nguyễn Duy Thành. The project consists of the performance series The Room that each version takes inspiration and focuses on selective symbolic elements from ceramic-making process . The Room 1 centers around the mould representing the endless existential cycle and struggles of human in times of crisis and confinement, while The Room 2 revolves around the symbol of the wheel-table and the emotions compressed, sculpted and thrown by the wheel of rationality, societal norms and the cycle of life. Initiated in 2021, The Room 1 was performed at Goethe-Institut Hanoi in March 2022 with support from their Ignite Creativity Grant.      

The idea of The Room stems from Chi’s background as she was born and brought up in an environment filled with her father’s ceramic sculptures. From an early age, she observed her father’s ceramic-making processes and comprehended the hard labour of this particular medium, also through her own exploration in her hometown – the ceramic village Giang Cao - Bát Tràng. All these have given her much insights and reflection of life in relation to the symbol of the moulds in slip-casting process, the wheel-table as well as the transformative power of ceramic-making all of which lead her to develop the concept of The Room. And to bring this notion to life, choreographer Nguyễn Duy Thành have created the spaces with the language of movements infused with representative and symbolic layers. Not only is it a personal narrative of the relationship between human and nature (clay – earth, water, fire, time and serendipity) but also The Room 2 brings up multiple interpretations of human communication as well as the conscious and unconscious sculpting process of feelings and rationality.