Professional Motion Picture Production and Distribution NEWS

Exhibit Opens Fall 2009

Independent director/editor Kai-Duc Luong will venture into the realm of video art installation this fall with his exhibition entitled, “Circumplex.” A dual audiovisual experience, this project will fully engulf the viewer in a world of emotional extremes and unfold the nuanced layers of a relationship between a man and a woman as they speak to each other and interact from opposing screens. Drawn in part from the artist’s own interpersonal struggles and successes, and loosely constructed around the eight bipolar emotions charted by psychologist Robert Plutchik, Luong invites the viewer to participate in an emotional struggle ? to be thrown back and forth between anger and fear, joy and sadness, trust and disgust, and anticipation and surprise. To more completely encompass viewers in this intimate and theatric exchange of feelings (perhaps encouraging them to reconsider their own?), Luong uses footage of the exhibit space as the digitally imposed background of the film, framing each of the actors on their respective screens. The power of human emotion makes time fluid in this film, in which a time-elapse carries the audience across the span of a full day in just a few short minutes.

Born in Phnom-Penh, Cambodia, Kai-Duc Luong now lives in Chicago, but travels widely, and appreciates the freedom to do so. Luong and his family fled the tyranny of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1975, and he grew up in Paris. There he studied for the Grandes Ecoles, before coming to the United States in 1997 as an exchange engineering graduate student in digital signal processing (audio, video, data). Following a ten-year stint as a telecommunications engineer for Motorola, Luong left corporate life and, using what he learned there, began to pursue a career as a filmmaker. He has directed a feature-length film and many music videos, short features, and documentaries, as well as art videos in the United States and France. His works include Someplace Else (2008, a Vilcek Foundation AIFP honoree), Alice by Chat (2009), and The Fight to Save Hartmarx (2009).

WHO: The Vilcek Foundation

WHAT: Video art installation exhibition created by Kai-Duc Luong             

DATES: October 2 - November 14, 2009 

HOURS: Wednesday – Saturday, 12 – 6 PM, and by appointment                      

WHERE: 167 East 73rd Street  (between Lexington and Third Avenues) New York, NY 10021                   

COST: Free

CONTACT: 212-472-2500 or info [ at ] vilcek [ dot ] org

About the Foundation

The Vilcek Foundation was established in 2000 by Jan and Marica Vilcek, immigrants from the former Czechoslovakia. The mission of the Foundation, to honor the contributions of foreign-born scholars and artists living in the United States, was inspired by the couple’s careers in biomedical science and art history, respectively, as well as their personal experiences and appreciation for the opportunities they received as newcomers to this country. The Foundation hosts events to promote the work of immigrants, and awards annual prizes to prominent immigrant biomedical scientists and artists who make outstanding contributions to society in the United States. http://www.vilcek.org/