À la recherche
Project for Arte Fare
Chillala House of Art, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
September 2026

Invited to participate in the inaugural edition of Arte Fare, Diane Giraud presents À la recherche, a site-specific performative installation developed for Chillala House of Art in Ho Chi Minh City. Through the public act of copying, handwriting becomes both the method through which the work is made and the material through which it unfolds.


Research Context
À la recherche emerges from Partial Archives, Surviving Forms, an artistic research project undertaken in Paris through the Culture Moves Europe programme. Developed in dialogue with curators, conservators and researchers across several museum collections, the research examined Vietnamese cultural heritage through material observation, acquisition histories and conservation practices.

Rather than seeking to reconstruct a singular cultural narrative, the research revealed the complexity of how knowledge is transmitted, mediated and continually reinterpreted. À la recherche extends these questions through the act of writing itself, approaching copying not as faithful reproduction but as a process through which meaning remains active.

Presented at Arte Fare, the installation marks Diane Giraud's first artistic presentation in Vietnam and opens a dialogue between an evolving artistic practice and the cultural context from which part of her heritage originates.

The work
À la recherche is a site-specific installation that unfolds through the public act of copying. It approaches writing not as the preservation of a text, but as a continuous negotiation through which meaning remains alive.

Begun prior to the exhibition, Diane Giraud hand-transcribes Marcel Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu onto rolls of domestic aluminium foil. The transcription continues in situ over three days, allowing writing, time and display to unfold together.

Framed works occupy the exterior walls of the display structure, while its three interior walls become a space of continuous inscription and accumulation. Moving between finished object and work in progress, the installation quietly unsettles the conventions through which a fragment is isolated, framed and presented as an autonomous artwork.

Rather than seeking faithful reproduction, the act of copying acknowledges that no repetition leaves meaning unchanged. Each inscription becomes less an act of preservation than a renewed act of interpretation.


Installation
The installation combines pre-produced framed works with rolls of handwritten aluminium foil. During Arte Fare, the transcription continues live over three days, allowing the work to evolve throughout the exhibition. Framed works occupy the exterior walls of the display structure, while the interior becomes a space of continuous inscription and accumulation.

Arte Fare
Arte Fare is the inaugural edition of a rotating exhibition bringing together twenty-four Vietnamese artists and artists from the Vietnamese diaspora. Curated by Trọng Gia Nguyễn and hosted by Chillala House of Art in Ho Chi Minh City from 3–26 September 2026, the exhibition creates a platform for dialogue across generations, geographies and contemporary artistic practices.

À la recherche is presented as part of this first edition and marks Diane Giraud's first artistic presentation in Vietnam.

À la recherche develops from the artistic research project Partial Archives, Surviving Forms, undertaken through the Culture Moves Europe programme and funded by the European Union.

Acknowledgement
This page presents a project currently in development for presentation at Arte Fare, Chillala House of Art, Ho Chi Minh City, September 2026. Images and installation details will be refined as production progresses.


Image Credits
Images 1–3: Photography by Guy Danieli
Images 4–5: Courtesy of the artist