The Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève is pleased to continue the Spoken Worlds program in collaboration with Emmanuelle Pireyre, writer and head of the writing workshop at HEAD – Genève. Spoken Worlds invites authors or artists who work with writing to present a reading of their text, followed by a discussion.

There are a multitude of uncomfortable, incongruous, or existentially unsettling situations, including that of the diasporic, depressed, and transgender tourist (DDTT) caught in his chosen environment—his father’s country of origin—in the middle of August.

Having recently moved to Ho Chi Minh City—known as Saigon—as a result of a decision made on impulse a few months earlier (buying a ticket), the DDTT, brimming with dreams and preconceived expectations of the “land of his ancestors” (What is your name? What is your quest? What’s your favorite color? [1])—actually encounters his own sense of disorientation.

How can one avoid “acting like” a Vietnamese person? Has anyone, somewhere, written a “guide to returning home”? What crimes did France commit in Indochina? Was the smoothie postcolonial? Why did the DDTT family go into exile? Who are the perpetrators and who are the victims? Do you suck balls?

Tôi không hiểu…

During this evening event, Noah Truong will share excerpts from his novel-in-progress. This reading will be followed by a discussion with the audience

[1] Monty Python: Holy Grail!, 1975.

Noah Truong was born in Paris in 1992. In 2024, he published Manuel pour changer de corps with Cambourakis (selected for the SGDL Grand Prix de Poésie and the Prix de la Vocation de Poésie), followed by Et Pourtant with Paulette Editrice (Lausanne) in 2025. His work appears in leading French-language poetry anthologies and has been translated in the United States, Brazil, and Germany. In 2026, he is an invited guest at the 48th Solothurn Literary Days.