Performance "perfume river", in central Vietnam, Hue on 14/11/2011 during the event "Open Academy - Berlin - Hanoi - Hue – Saigon”, organized by the Goethe Institute and the Berlin Senate, Hanoi - Hue - Saigon, Vietnam, 1.11 . -15.12.2010

The river "Perfume River" (in Vietnamese: Song Huong or Huong Giang) flows through the city of Hue in central Vietnam. To the Perfume River two legends are. The first states that the mountains accomodate certain flowers with special scent wafted by the wind into the river, so that the people of Hue have perceived this fragrance and today still can smell it at certain times. The second legend says that once the king of the south came to the city of Hue and asked a wise woman for advise to find the right place for his castle. The woman said to the king: take a joss stick (in Vietnamese "Huong", or "perfume") and go along the river. When the joss stick goes out, build your citadel where you stand and he did. Then they called the river "Perfume River". A third legend is contributed by the artist Nezaket Ekici and her performance. The performance of "Perfume River" tries to understand the legends in a poetic way and bring in a new perspective, that will from now on be retold by the local guide. In the performance, the artist stands on a traditional dragon boat. Dressed in the traditional Vietnamese dress (Ao dai) she sprays various perfumes into the air and distributes it with a fan, blowing the scents in the air and over to the river bank. The spectators standing on the river bank can smell the scent. The boat drifts down the river during the performance. Thus, the artist takes the legends literally and perfumes the Perfume River to its name and so it might smell for the first time really like perfume.

2 dragoon boots, costume, parfumes, fan

1 h

Photo by: Hai
Camera and edit: Branka Pavlovic
Text: Nezaket Ekici