Carré Arrondi
Hang Hang

From reality to fiction, Carré Arrondi is a theatrical performance that delves into the fragmented memories and traumas of Vietnamese-born nail technicians—figures who are both real and imaginary. The play explores the shifting boundaries between identity, deconstruction, and reconstruction of the self, weaving a poetic narrative where personal and collective memories intertwine. It questions the intersections of social class and gender, while revealing the intimate dialogues between the self and the other, echoes oscillating between being and nothingness. Furthermore, Carré arrondi offers a reflection on the power of language, where words, silences, and the unsaid meet in the space between languages.

Within the Vietnamese diaspora, the profession of nail technician is mainly practiced by the new generation of migrants, those who emerged after postcolonial migration linking the Indochinese peninsula to France. These people left Vietnam with fears about the future and a deep desire to offer their families a better life. However, they often find themselves facing increased vulnerability: human trafficking, working conditions akin to modern slavery, exposure to harmful chemical environments, and exhausting work rates. This reality ushers in an immigrant existence torn between two worlds: that of memories and remembrance, and that of the present, floating in an identity limbo, neither fish nor fowl.

Gentleness does not preclude violence.

Direction & Dramaturgy: Hằng Hằng
Scenography, Sound, Lighting & Olfactory creation: Hằng Hằng
Sound designer & Technician:  Arthur Canac
Performers: Maya de Vulpilières, Hằng Hằng
Assistants: Chi Trần, Hoàng Kim Tố Uyên
External Perspective: Anne Attali

With the support of MC93 – Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis (France), as part of Common Stories, a Creative Europe programme funded by the European Union, Doc Paris (France), as part of the Arts de la scène residency, A-turma Theater Association (Porto, Portugal), as part of the Inresidence 2024 residency and Kunstencentrum BUDA (Kortrijk, Belgium), as part of a residency.

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Maya de Vulpillières, performer

Born in 1999, Maya de Vulpillières lives and works in Paris. Her practice oscillates between performance, drawing, photography, and installation. Coming from a family with a French father and a Khmer mother whose culture she says she knows little about, she places her work at the crossroads of this country, Cambodia. Maya draws inspiration from images from cinema and those she says she “encounters” during her travels, which she then reuses in narratives where the senses become matter. Her sensitive attention and perception reveal spaces that question a certain otherness, between fiction and reality.

In October 2024, she took part in a performance festival, I hear a new world, at the NONONO space in Non-Étoile at the Tour Orion in Montreuil. This summer, the artist completed her first residency at the Z&O studio in La Chartre, in the Sarthe department. Maya has also been working for nearly two years alongside artist and director Ilaria Andreotti. She performed in her latest play, Stationed in the Pacific Theater, and will be featured in her next performance, which will be held at the Toby78 gallery in New York in early October.