Deconstructing Agent Orange – History as artistic materials, medium, and testimonies

Thurs 15 Sep 2022, 06:30 am
EMASI Vạn Phúc
No. 2 Street no. 5, Van Phuc Residential City, Thu Duc District, HCMC
To continue the Nguyen Art Foundation’s satellite public programs in association with the exhibition ‘Phổ Hiếu Kỳ’, our event this September brings in a perspective from social science, namely history, and how it serves as an inspiration and testimony for art.

Set in 1998, when the Vietnamese government was pursuing an international lawsuit against companies that were mired in disseminating Agent Orange during the Vietnam War, Dinh Q. Lê staged a pop-up exhibition inside a kiosk in the Saigon Trade Center (now defunct), filled with miniatures, stuffed toys, dolls, and baby clothes – except they all have two heads.

This sets the stage for a critical pursuit into a tumultuous chapter of the nation’s history, where war repercussions are seen through the lens of both art and socio-historical research. Dinh Q. Lê will guide us through the ups and downs of his ‘Damaged Gene’ series, and its successors ‘Lotus Land’ and ‘Pure Land’, where histories become the materials and medium that bear testimonies to the bygone, in order to emphasize the relationship between aesthetics and history, art and social sciences, reality and representation.

* Guest speaker: Dinh Q. Lê, Curator: Dương Mạnh Hùng
* The event will be live streamed on the event page

Language: English only (video documentation of the event will be subtitled in Vietnamese and published online at a later date)

Dinh Q. Lê’s work has been exhibited worldwide. His recent solo exhibitions include ‘Dinh Q. Lê: fil de la mémoire et autres photographies’, the Quai Branly Museum, Paris; ‘ Monuments and Memorials’, Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Porland, OR; ‘Pure Land’, Tang Contemporary Art, Bangkok; ‘Earthly Delights’, Project Fulfill Art Space, Taipei; ‘True Journey is Returned’, San Jose Art Museum, CA; ‘Skin On Skin’, 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong Kong; ‘Monuments and Memorials’, Singapore Tyler Print Institute, Singapore; ‘A Rite of Passage’, C3A Centro de Creación Contemporánea de Andalucía, Cordoba, Spain; ‘The Colony’, Shetland Arts Center, Shetland, Scotland; ‘Dinh Q. Lê: Memory for Tomorrow’ at Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; ‘Destination for the New Millennium, The Art of Dinh Q. Lê’ at the Asia Society, New York; and ‘Project 93: Dinh Q. Lê’ at Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York. He was also included in the ‘Delays and Revolutions’, Venice Biennale 2003; in dOCUMENTA (13) 2012; and the 2013 Carnegie International.

Dinh Q. Lê also co-founded VNFA and San Art, the most active non profit gallery and residency program in Vietnam. He is the board member of Arts Network Asia Peer Panel, the Danish Embassy’s Cultural Development and Exchange Fund, Asia Society Global Council, and Guggenheim Asian Council. Dinh Q. Lê was the 2010 Visual Art Laureate, Prince Claus Fund, Amsterdam, and a 2014 Rockefeller’s Bellagio Fellow.

Vietnam – RoK cultural exchange

Trinh Cong Son pedestrian street in Tay Ho district, Hanoi

Featuring more than 100 famous Korean opera and K-pop artists.

The event will also feature the participation of more than 50 businesses and investors from the RoK and Vietnam.

Exhibition features dialogue between calligraphy, graffiti

Until Sep 30,
The Temple of Literature, Hanoi

An exhibition named “Calligraphy – Graffiti Dialogue” featuring 39 works of calligraphy and graffiti by Vietnamese calligraphers and graffiti artists across the country.

The works are arranged like a story about two people with different personalities and the dialogue which brings them together to empathise and share with each other.

Len Lỏi Exhibition

Until Sep 23, 8am-5pm
Gallery 1, Building 2, Level 1, Saigon South campus, RMIT University Vietnam, 702 Nguyen Van Linh Street, HCM City

Len Lỏi Exhibition is a speculative spatial design project which intentionally challenges one’s perception and understanding of hẻm (alley) in District 4, Ho Chi Minh city. Drawing from students’ multiple research approaches, engagement with locals and place experiences, a series of multifunctional adaptive reuse commercial spaces designed by students in Interior Stream – Design Studies at RMIT University is finally ready to be showcased.

Exhibition: Illuminated Curiosities

Until Dec 2022
EMASI Nam Long
147 Street No.8, Nam Long Residential area, District 7,
EMASI Van Phuc
2 Street No.5, Van Phuc Residential City, Thu Duc District, HCM City

Nguyen Art Foundation (NAF) proudly invites you to the opening of ‘Illuminated Curiosities’, a group exhibition with 26 artists featuring 46 artworks from within and outside NAF’s Collection. Curated by art researcher Ace Le, with the curatorial assistance from Duong Manh Hung and Tam Nguyen, the exhibition will take place simultaneously across the campuses of EMASI Nam Long and EMASI Van Phuc, over the course of six months from May to December of 2022. ‘Illuminated Curiosities’ is a collaborative effort between NAF and Lan Tinh Foundation.

Film Screening & Talk: Looking For You

Sep 15, 8 pm
Manzi Art Space, 14 Phan Huy Ich Street, Hanoi

A short film by Anna Nguyen & Kristine Landon-Smith
Produced by: Tuyet Van Huynh

Language: English & Vietnamese (with subtitles)
The screening will be followed by Q&A session with the film crew

 A bilingual poignant and insightful film that weaves a rich tapestry of intergenerational stories through unfiltered conversations that examine the mother-daughter relationship in Vietnamese culture. Set in a cinematic metaphorical setting of “home”, the film evokes this sacred space where the discussion ranges from survival, shame, sacrifice, and the language of love: food.

Vietnamese short films to be screened

Featuring ten works of different genres on various topics by talented young filmmakers who have won top prizes at international film festivals and the CJ Short Film Making Project, a prominent national contest in the genre from 2018.

Highlighted works will include Điềm Báo (Fortune-telling) by Hồ Thanh Thảo, Cá Mặt Trăng (Moonfish) by Trần Thị Hà Trang, Con Dại Cái Mang (Mother’s Love) by Đào Thu Uyên, Những Con Voi Bên Vệ Đường (Elephants on the Streets) by Đào Quang Trung, and Hương Kỳ Trong Trăng (Dreaming a Dream) by Lê Can Trường.

All of them were named as the best works at this year's CJ Short Films Filmmaking Project.

Free entry.

Le Ha (Hanoigrapevines)