Múa Rứa 2023 | Performance “To remember or to forget, forget,…”

06 pm Sat 05 Aug 2023
81 Trần Quốc Thảo, Võ Thị Sáu, D.3, HCM City

Within the framework of MÚA RỨA 2023’s residency program organized by MORUA, three young artists including Nguyễn Hoàng Anh, Alek Phước Chương and Khang spent 5 weeks in Saigon to experiment with performance, dance, and theater.

“To remember or to forget, forget,…” is a performance that doubles as an “open studio” event as it welcomes the public into the artists’ creative process, allowing theatrical experiments to interact and rub off on the audiences.

The program includes: The performance and after talk

“To think of a longing
is to not forget
One day when
The sky
is bluely clear, full of what was missed,…”
“To remember or to forget, forget,…” is a performance consisting of five (05) chapters and three (03) performers, with a total duration of approximately 105 minutes. Inspired by people and conversations in real life, Hoàng Anh created a fictional “he” character and scenes surrounding “him”. In it, stage materials and lingual landscape catalyze and collide to take form. Performing bodies are placed in parallel with the “he” character to rouse unexpected interactions.

A presentation where gestures and words co-emerge and interact, at times in conflict, at times in company as they guide each other; in the end, what will be given away?
Duration: ~ 105’
Concept/Text/Directed by: Nguyễn Hoàng Anh
Performers: Nguyễn Hoàng Anh – Alek Phước Chương – Khang
Cameo: Mai Tí Nị
Observe and Response: Đoàn Thanh Toàn, Red
Photos by: Nguyễn Ngọc Hải
Video Documentation: Trung Del, Mai Huyền Chi
Designer: Tâm Đỗ
Rehearsal Venue supported by: ADA, Vẫn đang suy nghĩ space
Produced by: MORUA

Strolling through the Land of Lacquer

02 – 08 Aug 2023
Vietnam National Museum of Fine Arts
66 Nguyen Thai Hoc, Ba Dinh, Hanoi

Lacquer painting is honored as a wonder of Vietnamese fine arts. Grasping the field of lacquer painting resembled a gentle stroll to leave time to savor and capture the eclectic approaches to lacquer art amidst its evolution process. The Muse profoundly presents Strolling through the Land of Lacquer.

Vietnamese lacquer paint has existed for many generations, but only since the inception of the L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts de l’Indochine (the Indochina College of Fine Arts, currently known as Vietnam University of Fine Arts) in 1925 did artists begin to transform lacquer from crafting to artistic invention. Initially, the Indochinese artists attempted to paint lacquer with oil painting techniques, which were taught by French professors, however, their efforts were to no avail. This realization sparked the need for a different approach to the new material.

Among the pioneering generation, a name that was known to most was Nguyen Gia Tri, whose style pursue Expressionism with adorning feature but obscured than the artistry.

Due to the influence of the second principal of the Indochina College of Fine Arts, Mr. Evarite Jonchère, the fashion of 2nd generation lacquer painters Le Quoc Loc, Hoang Tich Tru, Pham Hau, etc. was more of decorative style to utilize the strengths of traditional Vietnamese art.

It’s acknowledged that the third generation, specifically painters Nguyen Sang and Nguyen Tu Nghiem, had redefined the concept of composing with lacquer paint.

From these insights, one can wonder what the 4th generation is contributing to this contemporary art and how it is advancing so far. We don’t seek answers to these questions, but rather bring them into the discussion by exhibiting paintings from various Northern lacquer “sects”. While strolling, we can barely notice all the details, let alone the complete scene, this limitation unburden our minds, and bring us to a state of calmness, to fully perceive the surrounding. Likewise, this exhibition may miss some of the important artists, and leave the mysteries to the art researchers.

In this exhibition, we proudly present these 10 artists, whose names are no stranger to art lovers:
– Lý Trực Sơn
– Nguyễn Quang Trung
– Phan Cẩm Thượng
– Triệu Khắc Tiến
– Vũ Văn Tịch
– Nguyễn Thị Thúy Nguyệt
– Nguyễn Xuân Lục
– Nguyễn Thị Quế
– Đỗ Thị Kim Đoan
– Phạm Trà My

Each of these artists is currently on a path to explore lacquer in unique artistic perspectives, some are opposite, namely the conventional and unorthodox, being reactive and converse with materials, standardized techniques fore implementation, and vice versa.

An Experimental Performance by Maya Nguyễn

08 pm, Fri 04 Aug 2023 
Manzi Art Space
14 Phan Huy Ích, Ba Đình, Hà Nội

Manzi is pleased to present an experimental performance of sound art by Maya Nguyễn – a young talented Vietnamese-Russian artist. This performance will feature Maya’s previous works as well as her ongoing project “ZOOM01_DXC_BER.MP3” carried out during an artist residency at the Zentrüm für Kunst und Urbanistik in Berlin, Germany 2023.

Maya Nguyễn creates sonic imaginaries using the body, field recordings, samples, text, and found objects. Her works treat sound as both a physical and a political material, thereby engaging different modes of listening within a single polyphonic imaginary.

Her latest practice, ZOOM01_DXC_BER.MP3 is a sound project based on field recordings of the Dong Xuan Center in Lichtenberg, Berlin — the largest Vietnamese-run market in Germany that is based on Dong Xuan Market in Hanoi, Vietnam. Sound recordings pick up atmospheres of the various market hangars, identify products and services on offer, and trace snippets of conversations between storeowners, customers, and tourists. From these recordings, a performance presents the soundscape of the market as a place of both economic and social exchange within the larger narratives of migratory routes and global economies.

Maya Nguyen is a Vietnamese-Russian interdisciplinary artist. Her practice engages with power relations inherent in human interaction and the environments that facilitate these interactions, focusing on the domestic sphere, colonial histories, migratory routes, and the relating between the human and the natural world. She works with open-ended interactions — be it through listeners determining their own compositions by walking through a spatialized sound installation, bodies affecting one another through contact improvisation and performance, or essay film slipping between image, text, and sound. Common to MN’s various works is her commitment to ambiguity that comes with the instability of categorization, where sound can be at once amplitude and power, pitch and gender, timbre and emotion.

Maya holds a B.A. in Philosophy and Comparative Literature from the University of Chicago and an M.F.A in Sound at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has been shown at Vincom Center for Contemporary Art, UCLA New Wight Gallery, Gene Siskel Film Center, Internationales Digitalkunst Festival 2022, Terrain Biennial 2021, Elastic Arts, Northwestern University, Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, and elsewhere.

Dissonance III: Deep Forest Prologue

22 July – 31 Aug 2023
Vin Gallery, 35/8 Nguyen Van Dau, Ward 6, Binh Thanh District, HCMC

Dissonance III: Deep Forest Prologue by artist, Harumi Yonekawa. Living and working in Tokyo, Harumi Yonekawa has explored various lens-based media such as photography and sculpture for her installations since the early 90’s, and has developed an in-depth understanding and pursuing relationships between the existence of the body and the possibilities of reality.

the kingfisher’s beak

19 Jul – 20 Aug 2023
Sàn Art, Units B6.16 and B6.17, Floor 6, Building B, Millennium MasterB
132 Bến Vân Đồn, District 4, HCMC (enter from Nguyễn Hữu Hào str.)

Sàn Art is pleased to collaborate with urban artist Liar Ben on the project, the kingfisher’s beak, a public art project that takes inspiration from every day’s life at Cù lao Nguyễn Kiệu, a small island that is attached to District 4.

Kingfishers are known to be amongst the most precise hunting birds despite their small bodies. They usually live close to the water and tend to observe their prey very carefully before swooping down from a perch. Playfully taking the role of a kingfisher, the artist carefully crafts and invites the audience into his playground, an expedition starting at Sàn Art, leisurely strolling along the canal and exploring the artworks amidst the scattered urban lives.

Taking a complicated urban space as the core, the project calls for the consideration of social and spatial relations during artistic production as well as consumption. We will be taking a strolling exercise, paying homage to ‘dérive’ but this time instead of drifting with no purpose, try to pay attention to how existing lives are layered on top of abandoned ones, how spaces can be treated as both cultural and political landmark, but at the same time, a playground… a concrete jungle suddenly turning into water under the beak of the kingfisher.

Liar Ben (b.1990), is an urban artist, who did not finish his schooling at the University of Fine Art, HCMC. His practices include street art, graffiti, art toy and his research focus on finding and making meanings out of the flow of urban life, to connect authentic local creativity to every day’s life. Some of his notable projects include Cô Mía (2012-now), Cơm Hộp (2019 – now), he’s now working fulltime as a very ham chơi artist, who likes to explore, observe and play with his art.

Exhibition “Praising impermanence”

09 am – 08 pm, 07 Aug – 03 Sep 2023
Annam Gallery, 371/4 Hai Bà Trưng, Võ Thị Sáu Ward, D.3, HCMC

Annam Gallery and Lan Tinh Foundation are pleased to present “Praising impermanence”, an inaugural solo exhibition of Hoài-Phương. This curated collection, overseen by Ace Le – founder of Lan Tinh Foundation, comprises over 30 paintings, each accompanied by a Haiku poem composed by the monk poet Pháp Hoan.

Out of a pool of over 600 poems, Hoai Phuong personally selected each poem based on her profound connection and sympathy. The painting titled “Eighty four thousand trees” embodied the vast forest of Buddhist preaching while reflecting her own feeling as she embarked on her artistic journey. The painting “Great Snow” is based on a koan of a Zen master who chopped down a Buddha statue to make a bonfire, making her question about the true nature of belief. The painting “Arid field” made her sympathize with the farmers from Mekong delta whose livelihood are endangered with water salinization and prolonged drought.

As a self-taught artist hailing from Saigon, Vietnam and now based in Bologna, Italy, Hoài-Phương has always been driven by a passion for drawing. She transformed this hobby into a lifelong career while pursuing her B.F.A in the United States, and now as a mother of two, she continues to nurture her art practice alongside her family.

Utilizing traditional Asian techniques such as painting with natural pigments and ink, Phương hopes to understand the essence of the past while also bringing a fresh perspective to her work. Her art is a fusion of Asian techniques and Western realism, reflecting her position as a diasporic Vietnamese constantly questioning her place and connection to her surroundings. Like a plant seeking to root itself in foreign soil, Phuong is always contemplating the East and the West within her heart.

Her work is a meditation on the interconnectedness of humanity and the natural world, a contemplation of the mysteries of the universe, and a search for hidden truths. Through her pieces, Phương weaves a poignant narrative of the human experience and the beauty of natural phenomena, showcasing her deep appreciation for the complexities and wonders of the world around us.

Studio Visit Phạm Xuân Cảnh

10 am – 06 pm, Sunday(s) 09, 16, 23, 30 July & 06 Aug 2023
Thạch Cầu, Long Biên, Hà Nội

On the occasion of Phạm Xuân Cảnh’s open studio, ‘A story of dreams’, Á is pleased to invite you to visit Cảnh’s studio for a private viewing of his photography practice in a showcase realized with his close friend, Nguyễn Huy An, in his own personal space.

When visiting his studio, please feel free to navigate the space and his showcase. If you have any questions, also feel free to ask him and talk to the photographer. If you are fortunate, you will also be invited to have a cup of tea and watch the trees in his garden.

Phạm Xuân Cảnh was born in 1979. Studied architecture at Hanoi University of Civil Engineering. A photography enthusiast and freelancer who practices personal documentary photography.

What’s left behind the Rectum? – Chapter 2: The Great Excretion

09 am – 08 pm, Tues – Sun, 09 July – 13 Aug 2023
Mơ Art Space
B3, 136 Hang Trong street, Hoan Kiem, Hanoi

This July, Mo Art Space cordially present to art lovers the solo showcase by artist Tèo Phạm, curated by Đỗ Tường Linh

Drawing inspiration from the philosophical writings of Martin Heidegger and Friedrich Nietzsche, the vibrant works of Tèo Phạm leave a strong impression on viewers with the concept of “excretion”. In his practice, he deliberately does not interfere much in terms of content and techniques, while calling his creative process a spiritual excrement – a grand excrement, implying a periodicity in what the mind and the spirit absorb and subsequently generate, the cycle of cause and effect.

Originally a satirical cartoonist, Tèo Phạm can play with any subject in a lighthearted way. The sacred is thus juxtaposed with the mundane; references to ancient beliefs are intertwined with wit and creativity; and the somewhat challenging lines blend with an appreciation of the unnoticed.

Following the first solo exhibition in 2022, “What’s left behind the Rectum? – Chapter 2: The Great Excretion” at Mơ Art Space offers a deeper insight into the vibrant and energetic colors of Tèo Phạm.

Phạm Hà Ninh – Entrusted Conjectures

Opening party: Fri 23 June 2023, 06 pm
On display: 24 June – 06 Aug 2023, 11 am – 07 pm (except Monday)
Manzi Exhibition Space
No. 2 Hàng Bún alley, Hà Nội

Entrusted Conjectures – an open studio by visual artist Hà Ninh Pham
Presenting a new series of “sculptures – measuring instruments” as a part of his on-going project titled “My Land”

How much of our perception of the world is shaped by the way we measure it?
Measurement refers to various systems of apparatus, units and rules based on which the uncertainty of value is reduced and can be expressed in a quantity. The standardization in measurement establishes a mutual understanding of quantities, and provides the basic reference for many disciplines. Measurement, thus, is a cornerstone of science, a fundamental step in framing and constructing the world.

In ‘Entrusted Conjectures’, we are introduced to a series of handmade instruments of measurement. This is part of ‘My Land’, the multi-year, multi-disciplinary world-building project that Hà Ninh has been working on since 2017. This territory does not correspond to any known culture in human history. It has its own systems of logic, language, and metrology that are functional only within themselves”(from Hà Ninh’s artist’s statement for ‘My Land’). Based on various materials, the construction of ‘My Land’ expands through two-dimensional drawings, three-dimensional sculptures, story writing and a virtual game. Correspondingly, there are four different “entrances”- four starting points to experience the territory. ‘Entrusted Conjectures’, featuring some realizations of the fictional metrology system provides one of the entry points.

Designed and created with a DIY aesthetic, most of the sculptures are crafted from wood, with some few elements completed with tracing paper and 3D printed plastic. Measuring instruments are presented along with the ‘display plates’ recording the data and measuring results, as well as other artifacts which have been interpreted, visualized from the outputs of measurements. The whole body of works proclaims its presence right in the center of the exhibition space and defends its autonomy with a kind of fortification: a dry moat has been dug, precisely surrounding the display area. Outside the moat, on the walls is another type of boundary, a line of sketches positioned at eye level, a vague resemblance to a horizon.

‘Entrusted Conjectures’ suggests reflections on the boundary, on the problem of trust and on the possibilities of a proof and an assumption. By juxtaposing the physicality and materiality implied in sculptures with the functionality of the instruments relied on fictional ideas and principles, an intriguing investigation begins, testing the unreality of the reality / the non-real nature of the word thought to be quantifiable and perceivable.

There will come a time when every measurement would be an act of re-measuring; as there always comes a time when people can no longer believe in the results of previous measurements. A continuous process of forming a hypothesis then proving and disproving – that’s how science is built. ‘Entrusted Conjectures’, in this version presented at manzi, is just the first step. Surely we can expect more surprises to come in the future. How far can the artist go in this journey of organizing, interpreting our world and architecting his world? A thoroughly independent scientific and technical system – an alternative definition of reality can be achieved someday, maybe?

Exhibition “Neverwhere”

Opening: Sat 10 June 2023, 06 pm – 08 pm
Exhibition: Tues – Sat, 13 June – 05 Aug 2023, 10 am – 07 pm
Galerie Quynh, 118 Nguyễn Văn Thủ, ĐaKao, D.1, HCMC

In the vast expanse of the universe, we find ourselves in an infinitesimally small space, encountering endless mysteries that defy our understanding. Throughout history, artists and scientists alike have been captivated by the idea of parallel realities. Drawing inspiration from quantum mechanics, string theory, and avant-garde art movements, Neverwhere delves into the uncharted territories of the imagination, transcending conventional norms and questioning the limitations of our perception.

The exhibition brings together six visionary artists – Nadege David, Cian Duggan, Sandrine Llouquet, Ngo Dinh Bao Chau, Trong Gia Nguyen, and Vo Tran Chau – who invite us on a mesmerizing journey through the intersections of art, science, and spirituality. The title “Neverwhere” borrows from the eponymous novel by Neil Gaiman that depicts an unseen world beneath the sewers – LondonBelow– where strange destinies await, suggesting the idea of a physical space that does not yet exist in time.

Challenging the traditional notion of a white cube space and defying gravitational shackles, the exhibition propels us into a surreal dimension where otherworldly beings exist in parallel to our own reality. Here, half-open doors float weightlessly in a state of flux, as beings seek to reveal their visible form. Time is not linear but coexists with back-forth and up-down movements. As truth eludes us, the blending of the flat, the illusory, and the dimensional intertwines without hierarchy, while time challenges our perceptions, shaping memories into fragments of endurance.

The UK/Viet Nam Season 2023

June – Dec 2023

The UK/Viet Nam Season will take place across Viet Nam, between June and December 2023 in order to celebrating the best of UK-Vietnamese partnerships across the arts, creative industries, higher education, and in English language. Its programme of events includes exciting workshops, performances, exhibitions, hackathons and more.

The UK and Viet Nam first forged a diplomatic relationship 50 years ago – this Season commemorates the 30th anniversary of British Council’s presence in Viet Nam. UK/Viet Nam Season is an opportunity to strengthen existing bonds and forge new creative partnerships between the people of both countries.

The UK/Viet Nam Season kicks off in June and will showcase the richness of the relationship between the UK and Viet Nam – from one-of-a-kind major festival performances, to interactive large-scale exhibitions that tackle global challenges, to works delving into the rich history of Vietnamese–British communities, or sonic journeys exploring the voices who have made a home in Hue City and Manchester. The Season is focused on building on the rich historic ties between the UK and Viet Nam, and how we create our future together.

Throughout UK/Viet Nam Season, British Council will actively support new educational resources that focus on how we can create a more sustainable world. These resources are designed for classrooms at all levels, so students and teachers can learn about the important challenges facing our planet and how they can make a difference.

British Council’ll bring together experts from both the education and language sectors, to help us address this global challenge and engage our communities in the conversation.