vn-a contributed to the architectural and technical design and detailing of ‘Quantum Palm’, an artwork by Arlette Quynh-Anh Tran, presented as part of her solo exhibition ‘Future Tense’ at ara contemporary in Jakarta, Indonesia.
“Drawing on the 1964 New York World’s Fair and Expo ’70 Osaka, ‘Future Tense’ stages a speculative Third World Pavilion, exploring how visions of a Third World future have shifted and unraveled. Tran treats the pavilion as a medium for channeling these visions, staging what she describes as a séance where architecture, history, and sound interact.
Central to the exhibition is ‘Quantum Palm’, a large-scale sonic and thermal sculpture referencing the talipot palm, which lives for decades and flowers only once before it dies. Alongside ‘Invisible Anthem’, a sound installation created in collaboration with Indonesian composer Nursalim Yadi Anugerah, the works are activated at set intervals through a choreographic score. The exhibition moves between states: silent and sounding, still and moving, dormant and active.”
(Exhibition text by Carlos Quijon Jr.)