Films about the Vietnam War are a genre of their own in the United States; in Vietnam memories of this conflict are systematically suppressed. Even thirty years after it ended, the war and the ideological conflict that lay behind it are absent from public debate. Particularly South Vietnam's role is regarded as taboo. Photographs from the period are reserved for family albums and private collections. They often end up in one of the many junk shops of Ho Chi Minh City (previously Saigon), where they are sold as tourist curios.

UNSPEAKABLE MEMORY (2000-2001) is intended to fill in the gaps in public memory. Sue Hajdu collected photographs about the Vietnam War and the swinging Saigon of the 1960s and '70s. Some of them have been incorporated into TO CHOU CHOU FROM TEXAS and MISS PEACOCK. The first installation contains snapshots that a South Vietnamese officer made in Texas. He photographed himself in front of historic monuments and in a Western theme park, apparently during a language course that preceded military training in the U.S. On the backs he wrote messages for his Vietnamese girlfriend. The second installation consists of 130 images of Miss Peacock, a film star in the worldly Saigon of the 1960s. At the time, such photos were collected by film fans. Both installations offer a glimpse into a time that present-day Vietnam, ruled by the North, regards as degenerate.

Writer, curator and visual artist, Sue Hajdu (Australia/Vietnam, b. 1966) lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City. She specializes in the urban culture of the 20th century. Her work focuses particularly on the impact of Vietnam's recent history.