‘Art in Global Health’ was a Wellcome Trust initiative to set up artist residencies in the Wellcome Trust-funded research centres as a way of teasing out some of the more personal, philosophical, cultural and political dimensions of health research.
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Lena Bui, an artist based in Ho Chi Minh City, did her residency with OUCRU-HCMC in 2012. While in residence, Lena explored zoonosis research and the relationship between animals and people. She visited rural farming areas where researchers are investigating the human-animal interface of ‘high risk cohorts’ – people with high levels of occupational exposure to animals (farmers, animal traders, abattoir and market workers). She also travelled further afield, visiting small villages with long histories of economies based on harvesting bird feathers. The outcomes of her residency included an exhibition at Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Museum in partnership with San Art in November 2012.