CBSO Centre, Berkley Street, Birmingham B1 2LF

South China Sea Pishkun (2009) is Vietnamese artist Dinh Q. Lê’s first animation, based on an event that took place on 30 April 1975, at the end of America’s war in Vietnam.

With the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong marching towards Saigon the Southern Vietnamese Army, American military and USA diplomatic personnel were desperately trying to leave. Hundreds of helicopters packed with escapees were flown toward the South China Sea, searching for aircraft carriers. Many crash-landed when they ran out of fuel; others were pushed off the carriers’ decks into the sea to make room for more to land. Pishkun is a Blackfeet American Indian term referring to the site where roaming bison were killed by driving them over a cliff.

Projected large-scale at the CBSO Centre, South China Sea Pishkun shows the machinery of war in its last moments, crashing, struggling and dying in the sea. This event is organised in collaboration with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. The CBSO centre is located on Berkley Street, five minutes walk from Ikon.