Nguyễn + Transitory reconfigure spaces into musical architectures that merge the spectral resonances of traditional folk and contemporary forms. Their practice explores the transformative potential of sound, not simply as an aesthetic medium, but as a dramaturgical force deeply entwined with cognitive memory, lost histories, and collective experiences within contemporaneity. Rather than dissolving distinctions between folk traditions and contemporary practices, Nguyễn + Transitory create an artistic language born from the friction and productive tension between these disparate forms. Through this dialogue, they allow each tradition to retain its integrity while simultaneously giving rise to something entirely new—an evolving expression that navigates between the past and present without privileging or diminishing either.
Their projects หยื้อ | Yue (2024), cham-cam (2024), and Symphony Of Intimacies (2022) exemplify this approach, where sonic dramaturgies meet corporeal choreographies, crafting a space where past and present converge in ways that resist the sedimentation of either.
At the heart of their practice is an ongoing negotiation between the friction of form and the fluidity of artistic process, challenging colonial frameworks by allowing these intersections to shape new, plural languages of performance. Their earlier works, such as Bird Bird, Touch Touch, Sing Sing (2019), laid the groundwork for their exploration of spatial and sonic boundaries, while later projects like Topography Of Vulnerabilities (2020-2022) have further pushed the possibilities of sound as site-specific sculptures.
For Nguyễn + Transitory, the past is not a static inheritance, but a living, transformative force that continuously reshapes the present. Their practice resists fixed outcomes, embracing the performative process as a site of becoming, where sound, space, and history are constantly redefined and reconstituted.