À la Recherche…, 2026
Handwritten transcription on domestic aluminium foil; production and framing process
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Photography: Nguyen Lê Tuân Kiêt
À LA RECHERCHE…
À la Recherche… by Diane Giraud will be presented at Arte Fare, 1st Edition, curated by Trong Gia Nguyen at Chillala House of Art, Ho Chi Minh City, from 13–16 September 2026.
WITH LIVE TRANSCRIPTION
13–16 September 2026
Daily 4–4.30 pm — VIP
Daily 6–6.30 pm — General Public
À la recherche… began with a series of experiments in Diane Giraud’s Lisbon studio, transcribing Marcel Proust’s À la recherche du temps perdu by hand onto domestic aluminium foil. Developed for Arte Fare in Ho Chi Minh City, the work evolved in response both to the experimental nature of the fair and to the practical conditions of producing and transporting work across continents.
A 12-metre continuous roll of aluminium foil offered a form that was at once portable and open-ended. Rather than transporting finished works, Giraud brought the ongoing transcription to Ho Chi Minh City, where fragments were cut from the roll, following the order in which they had been written, and framed locally. The remaining length is presented in a custom-made dispenser, retaining the material in its original rolled form while allowing the transcription to continue.
The choice of aluminium foil deliberately diverts an ordinary domestic material from its habitual use. Its fragility and susceptibility to alteration are integral to the work: the pressure of handwriting embosses its surface, while every act of handling carries the possibility of leaving a trace, a crease or irreversible damage. Rather than resisting these properties, the work depends upon them.
The transcription itself is slow and laborious. Unlike reading, copying requires the transcriber to remain with the text word by word, establishing a different relationship to language through repetition, attention and physical gesture. Proust’s words are not simply read or reproduced but encountered through the sustained act of writing them again.
Throughout the four days of the exhibition, Giraud continues the transcription live at designated times. The work therefore remains simultaneously in production and on display: a continuous text progressively gives rise to individual framed works, while the roll from which they originate continues to unfold.
Moving between continuity and fragmentation, process and object, À la recherche… responds to the hybrid conditions proposed by Arte Fare, where distinctions between making, exhibiting and the conventions of the art fair become deliberately porous. Copying is approached not as faithful reproduction but as a form of encounter: no inscription — and no transmission — remains entirely unchanged.
ABOUT ARTE FARE
Arte Fare is a rotating exhibition curated by Trong Gia Nguyen at Chillala House of Art in Ho Chi Minh City. Over 24 days, exhibitors take over four booths in successive rotations, using the familiar structure of the art fair as a format to reconsider relationships between making, exhibiting and presenting work.
Each iteration places artists directly within a structure conventionally mediated by galleries, while the curator operates as “fair director”, testing different approaches to exhibition and sales. Works selected from each rotation are subsequently installed on the surrounding gallery walls, creating a cumulative record of the exhibition as it unfolds.
Arte Fare — 1st Edition
3–26 September 2026
Curated by Trong Gia Nguyen
Chillala House of Art
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
SUPPORT FOR À LA RECHERCHE…
