Artist Chinh Ba recited his poem at Hà Nội's Goethe Institute on Monday night. He was accompanied by musician Alex Schachner. — Photo coutersy of Goethe Institute

HÀ NỘI — A night of poetry and music was held at Hà Nội's Goethe Institute yesterday evening in front of a limited audience to ensure social distancing. 

The show entitled Bài Thơ Dài Về Những Đường Biên (The Long Poem for Boundaries) featured artists Chinh Ba, Alex Schachner and video jockey Linh Hà. 

"As a poetry performance artist, I expose myself to the emotional stratum by choosing the random arrangement of languages and different sound bands," said Ba. 

"The long poem for the boundaries is a confrontation between ideologies that are being surrounded by walls separating the environment and society, as well as the ideologies."

The poem is made up of sentences, words, from real sounds which Ba's friends sent from conflicts between Israel and Palestine and from confined friends.

"They are from many parts of the world and Việt Nam," Ba said. 

Ba was inspired to write the poem from his friend's message of a recording of bombing sounds near where his friend was staying.

"I asked if he could send me a recording of the sound as he walked through the escape tunnel. He said it was very dangerous."

He started to write about borders, boundaries and himself.

Ba is an art performer, poet and musician. He is founder of Hội An Cab art space. 

He was accompanied by Schachner to perform in the 90-minute show. Schachner is a multi-genre musician, sound installation artist, scholar and poetry translator.

He has been living and working in Việt Nam for many years and is head engineer at Ếch Ếch Recording Studio. — VNS