Where The Sea Remembers


Project | July 13-Oct. 12, 2019

This is a past project.

 

One of the first exhibitions in the US devoted solely to contemporary art from Vietnam gives insights into the complex cultural dynamics of one of the world’s last surviving Communist nations.  

About the Exhibition.

Where The Sea Remembers is a project—comprised of an exhibition, a program series, and a website—that explores contemporary art in and about Vietnam through the practices of artists who live and work there and across its diasporas. This project marks the launch of an institutional initiative aimed at fostering exchanges and collaborations between TMR and independent peer institutions in Vietnam. The goal of this work is to create opportunities that cultivate and support an emerging generation of Vietnamese artists, writers, and curators in order to encourage the creation of scholarship that expands what we know about local and regional art histories and how we come to know it. 

The result of ongoing conversations with artist friends and colleagues in Vietnam and others living elsewhere who are invested in the country’s artistic communities, Where The Sea Remembers is conceived as the starting point of an inquiry rather than its culmination. As such, it acknowledges and embraces its incompleteness in an attempt to re-imagine the function of the regionally-based exhibition format. Conscious that exhibitions have often throughout history been put to the service of nation-building, Where The Sea Remembers thinks of the nation not as a static geographic locale or even a diasporic imaginary but rather as a complex set of tense and evolving individual relationships between people and their ideas of a homeland. Thus, the artworks in the show and the contributions of program participants and commissioned writers are gathered as a dispatch of multiple perspectives rather than as a defining survey. 

The project’s title is largely inspired by the name of a song widely known amongst people who fled Vietnam after the end of the war in 1975. Written by poet and musician Trịnh Công Sơn, Biển Nhớ, or The Sea Remembers, was often sung as a farewell by those staying behind in the refugee camps to those who were discharged and relocated. The song’s famous refrain, “Tomorrow you leave,” foregrounds the painful separation of exile, yet as scholar Yến Lê Espiritu has written, its invocation of a place—its mountains, sands, and willows—creates a bond that forever connects those who have gone to the lands they left behind. It is here, between the countries we knew and the homelands we choose to inhabit that Where The Sea Remembers locates a contemporary experience of nationhood. One that is always forged by partial choices, acts of distancing and affiliation, and creative tactics of world-making. 

The Exhibition 

The exhibition introduces a recent history of Vietnamese contemporary art. It takes the year 2007 as a point of departure—marking Vietnam’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) and a peak in the country’s Đổi Mới reforms that began in 1986 with the goal of creating a socialist-oriented market economy. Along with easing restrictions on foreign investments, the privatization of state-owned enterprises, and the arrival of multinational corporate conglomerates, Vietnam also softened its borders—allowing for expanded tourism, professional exchanges and broadened travel opportunities for Vietnamese citizens. This facilitated movement also gave way to returnees—foreign-raised Vietnamese refugees who returned to settle in their homeland. Among them were artists, who alongside local stakeholders helped found new independent spaces for the cultivation of emerging talent and the production and presentation of contemporary art. With a host of new industries burgeoning in the country, a reinvigorated institutional circuit, and broadened access to a global intellectual and peer network, conceptual art practices flourished—paving the way for a generation of practitioners invested not only in painting and sculpture but also in video, installation, and performance. 

Rather than prescribing an encompassing thematic framework, artists’s interests function as the structuring devices that organize the presentation of works in the exhibition. These interests include the role of technology and media in the construction of a socialist-oriented market economy; the re-interpretation of history through the construction of personal mythologies; the refugee experience and futurism; and the body and performativity. Through these interests, the artists in the show also unveil an expanded way of considering artistic production from the region beyond the well-known themes of war, displacement, and trauma. 

Programs 

Alongside the exhibition, a series of programs including artist- and curator-led walkthroughs, screenings, and conversations will be staged throughout the run of the show. The anchor program will be on closing weekend and will be devoted to film, video, and moving image based works from Vietnam.

Website 

A website created specifically for the project will go live in mid-June. The website will include a selection of short videos about the artists in the exhibition as well as interviews and other writings. The website is meant to be an editorial platform that contextualizes the project and provides multiple perspectives about the contemporary art scene in Vietnam.

About the Artist.

Truc-Anh (b. 1983, France. Lives and works between Ho Chi Minh City and Marseille)

Truc-Anh is a Vietnamese-French artist who works in a range of media that includes video, painting, sculpture, woodcarving and performance. They are all articulated like brances around a central trunk, drawing. Through his work, Truc-Anh encourages viewers to pause and actively engage what he makes visible, invisible, and immaterial. Drawing upon a range of references from art history to contemporary culture, Truc-Anh challenges viewers by drawing them into visual enigmas. Truc-Anh studied at Ecole Boulle, Ecole Superieure des Arts Appliques, Paris; ECAL, Haute Ecole d’Art et de Design, Lausanne; and La Cambre, Ecole Nationale Superieure des Arts Visuels, Brussles. He has exhibited in several group exhibitions in Europe, most notably at the Museum CODA, Apeldoorn, the Netherlands; and Galerie Albus Lux, Knokke, Belgium. 

Ngô Đình Bảo Châu (b. 1986, Vietnam. Lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City)

Ngô Đình Bảo Châu lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City where she explores the expressive facilities of a variety of media, including painting, installation, and sculpture. Coupling understanding with imagination, her work seeks to re-conceptualize her object of concern in order to create a personal iconography of meaning and existence. She received a BFA from Ho Chi Minh Fine Art University in 2010 and has participated in group shows and residency programs in Vietnam and abroad. In 2014 she co-created and collaborated on a project named Open Room, which has become an annual platform for introducing both new works and invited artists to the local art community in Vietnam.  

Võ Trân Châu (b. 1986, Vietnam. Lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City)

Born to a family of traditional embroiderers, Võ Trân Châu understands the languages of threads and fabrics, and chooses textile, particularly found fabrics and second-hand clothing, as materials for her artistic practice. The provenance of the fabric is strongly connected to the subject that she addresses. By deploying materials that are closely tied to individual bodies, she portrays how strongly personal history reflects on the grand historical narrative of a society. Võ Trân Châu has had a solo shows at Manzi Art Space, Hanoi, and Salon Saigon, Ho Chi Minh City. She has participated in group shows at CHAT/MILL6 Foundation, Hong Kong; Gillman Barracks, Singapore; San-Art, Ho Chi Minh City; Suzhou Documents, Suzhou, China; and the 2016 edition of EVA International, Limerick, Ireland.

The Propeller Group (Founded 2006, Vietnam)

The Propeller Group is a platform for collective thinking and coordinated action. Its multimedia works in film, photography, sculpture and installation use the languages of advertising and politics to initiate conversations about power, propaganda and public perception. Their work has been exhibited in the 56th Venice Biennale; Prospect, New Orleans, Louisiana; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; and the New Museum, New York. In 2016, the MCA Chicago staged Propeller Group's first retrospective exhibition, which travelled to the Blaffer Museum, Houston and the San Jose Museum of Art.

Nguyễn Phương Linh (b. 1985, Vietnam. Lives and works in Hanoi)

Nguyễn Phương Linh is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans video, sculpture and installation. Her choice of materials (including salt, dust and rubber fragments) brings together the sensual and the humble to explore the transformations of geopolitical landscape and the human manipulation of nature. In 2013, she co-founded Nhà Sàn Collective. She has exhibited in numerous exhibitions, with recent solo shows at 3147966 cm3 gallery in Thailand and Fukuoka Asian Art Museum in Japan. In addition, Phuong Linh has held many international artist residencies with organizations such as Seoul Art Space, Korea, and  Kaman Art Foundation, Rajasthan, India.

Sandrine Llouquet (b. 1975, France. Lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City)

Ancient spiritual practices, esoteric rituals, re-imagined mythological imageries and religious behaviors are at the center of Sandrine Lloquet’s practice. Fascinated by the powerful influence of religious and spiritual beliefs on many aspects of human existence, Lloquet builds an array of realms through a multi-disciplinary practice. She was a founding member of Wonderful District, a project that promoted contemporary art through exhibitions, concerts, and theatre pieces in Ho Chi Minh City from 2005-2011. She was also a member of Mogas Station, a Vietnam-based artist collective active from 2006-2007. Llouquet’s work has been exhibited in numerous venues including the Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; and Tate Modern, London. She has participated in a number of biennials with Mogas Station such as the Shenzhen Biennale, the Singapore Biennale, and in Migration Addicts- a collateral event of the 52nd Venice Biennale.

Thinh Nguyen (b. 1984, Vietnam. Lives and works in Los Angeles)

Thinh Nguyen is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in Los Angeles who investigates the intersections of cultural values. Utilizing various media, they explores and exposes oppressive social conditioning around race, gender, sexuality, and belief systems. Nguyen performed and exhibited nationally and internationally, most recently at The Hammer Museum, REDCAT, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, and Human Resources, all in Los Angeles. They presented interventions at The New Museum, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; and Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Their work has been written about in Artforum, the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Magazine, LA Weekly, Hyperallergic, Artillery and numerous online forums. Nguyen holds a BFA in drawing and painting from California State Univerisity, Fullerton and an MFA in interdisciplinary studies from Claremont Graduate University, California.

Tuấn Mami (b. 1981, Vietnam. Lives and works in Hanoi)

Aptly nicknamed Mami, a playful slang word for hustler, Tuấn Mami constantly explores new mediums and methods of expression. He is known for his daring, and increasingly meditative experimentations with installation, video, performance and conceptual art, which in recent years have taken the form of site-specific interventions into both private and public places.  He founded MAC-Hanoi, a Mobile Art Center in 2012 and co-founded Nha San Collective Art Space, Hanoi in 2013, where he serves as Creative Director. He has recently completed a residency at the Rijksakademie, Amsterdam and presented solo exhibitions at the Factory Contemporary Arts Centre, Ho Chi Minh City; Framer Framed, Rotterdam; Heritage Space, Hanoi; and the Defibrillator Performance Art Gallery, Chicago.

Trong Gia Nguyen (b. 1971, Vietnam. Lives and works between Ho Chi Minh City and Brooklyn)

Trong Gia Nguyen is a multi-disciplinary artist whose diverse body of works examines structures of power in their myriad forms, scrutinizing—in ways both playful and poignant— the foundations upon which contemporary life plays out.  Nguyen has exhibited widely in the U.S. and abroad, with recent solo shows at Cornell Museum of Fine Arts, Orlando, FL, USA;  La Patinoire Royale, Brussels, Belgium; Galerie Quynh, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; L’Espace, Hanoi, Vietnam; and Richard Koh Projects, Singapore. 

Tuấn Andrew Nguyễn (b. 1976, Vietnam. Lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City)

Tuấn Andrew Nguyễn’s work explores strategies of political resistance through rituals, the making of objects (both as testimony and as devotion), supernaturalism and the impact of mass media on these moments of resistance. He was a co-founder and board member of Sàn Art, an artist-initiated exhibition space and educational program in Ho Chi Minh City as well as a founding member of The Propeller Group. Nguyen’s work has been included in numerous exhibitions and film festivals around the world. Most notably, his recent film projects have been included in the Sharjah Biennial, the Whitney Biennial, and in a solo exhibition at the Factory Contemporary Arts Centre, Ho Chi Minh City. His works are in the collection of the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane; Carré d'Art, Nimes, France; Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.

Nguyễn Văn Đủ (b. 1986, Vietnam. Lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City)

Nguyễn Văn Đủ is a painter living and working in Ho Chi Minh City. Intrigued by the way habits are taught and passed down, he is drawn to the ethical and moral questions behind the visual representations of tradition. Recently, Văn Đủ had his second solo exhibition titled Human Figure at Arts-Venture Gallery in Ho Chi Minh City. He also participated in several group exhibitions at The Factory Contemporary Art Centre, Ho Chi Minh City; Start Art Fair at Saatchi Gallery, London; and AIA Vietnam at Casa Italia, Hanoi, among others.

Phan Thảo Nguyên (b. 1987, Vietnam. Lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City)

Phan Thảo Nguyên is a multimedia artist whose practice encompasses painting and installation.  Through literature, philosophy and daily life, she observes the ambiguities of social convention, history, and tradition. She has exhibited widely in Vietnam and abroad, with solo and group exhibitions at the 14th Sharjah Biennale; Gemäldegalerie, Berlin; the 2018 Dhaka Art Summit; Para Site, Hong Kong; Factory Contemporary Art Centre, Ho Chi Minh City; Nha San Collective, Hanoi; Bétonsalon, Paris; Goethe-Institut, Hanoi; Institute for Contemporary Arts, Singapore; and Bangkok Art and Culture Centre. In addition to her work as a multimedia artist, she is a co-founder of the collective Art Labor.

Phan Quang (b. 1976, Vietnam. Lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City)

Phan Quang uses photography to stage images that speak to the connection between grand-scale historical events and the intimate micro-histories of life, love, and loss in Vietnam. Before beginning to exhibit his artwork, Phan worked for over a decade as a photojournalist for some of Asia’s best-known media, including Forbes, The New York Times, and Vietnam Economic Times. Currently he is a photography lecturer at University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Ho Chi Minh City. He has presented solo exhibitions at BLANC Art Space and San Art, both in Ho Chi Mnh City. His work has also been featured in group exhibitions in Vietnam, Singapore, New York, Japan, and France.

Thu Van Tran (b. 1979, Vietnam. Lives and works in Paris, France)

Working across a range of forms and materials, Tran uses her own experience as a cultural outsider – a Vietnamese woman living in France – to explore physical and cultural displacement and the history of colonialism—subjects that have become poignantly relevant in today's climate. Her work has shown recently at Center for Contemporary Art, Hanoi; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; the 57th Venice Biennale; Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin; Kunsthalle Sao Paulo, Brazil; and Ladera Oeste, Guadalajara, Mexico. She was nominated for the Marcel Duchamp Prize 2018 and exhibited at Centre Georges Pompidou in the fall of the same year. Thu-Van Tran's works are included in public and private collections, such as Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris; Kadist Fondation, Paris/San Francisco; MAC VAL, Vitry-sur-Seine, France; and Vehbi Koc Fondation, Istanbul, among others.

Trương Công Tùng (b.1986, Vietnam. Lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City)

Born into a Vietnamese agricultural family, Trương Công Tùng later moved to Saigon in his late teens, where he experienced the country’s rapid changes in economics, politics, and society. His practice bears witness combines earthly and decaying materials like soil and plants with signifiers of both contemporary and past technologies, such as projectors, keyboard keys, and satellite dishes. Trương Công Tùng work has been exhibited at Para Site, Hong Kong; Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw; Kadist, San Francisco; Bildmuseet Umea University, Sweden; Osage Art Foundation, Hong Kong; Museum of Contemporary Art, Santa Barbara, California; and the Dhaka Art Summit 2018.

Related

Press

June 20, 2019 | The Mistake Room Presents Contemporary Art From Vietnam | FLAUNT

July 2019 | The LALA List | LALA Magazine

July 8, 2019 | 5 design things to do this week: July 8 – 14, 2019 | KCRW

July 8, 2019 | Where The Sea RemembersArtillery Magazine

July 8, 2019 | Where The Sea Remembers | Curate LA

July 10, 2019 | Where The Sea Remembers at The Mistake Room from Sat. July 13 to Sat. Oct. 12 | ForYourArt

July 13, 2019 | Where The Sea Remembers—Part One | EASTWIND

July 15, 2019 | Vietnamese Artists Born After the War Offer a Fresh Perspective on the Asian Nation | Los Angeles Magazine

July 16, 2019 | Vietnamese Contemporary Art Arrives in Los Angeles | Design Anthology

July 18, 2019 | Donna Huanca, La Brea Tar Pits, and More Must See Los Angeles | Whitewall

July 26, 2019 | Vietnamese American Artist Traveled the US to Prepare for Exhibit | Spectrum1 News

July 26, 2019 | Datebook: Paintings that serve as reflections of indigenous life in Australia | LA Times

July 26, 2019 | Things to do in the San Fernando Valley, LA area, July 26-Aug. 2 | Los Angeles Daily News

Aug. 8, 2019 | Review: Vietnam’s art shows its depth and diversity in this L.A. show | LA Times

Aug. 16, 2019 | Critics Picks: Where The Sea Remembers | Artforum

Sept. 2019 | Review: Where The Sea Remembers | Art Asia Pacific

Sept. 5, 2019 | Where The Sea Remembers—Part II | EASTWIND

Oct. 9, 2019 | Where The Sea Remembers | Terremoto

Oct. 11, 2019 | Contemporary art blooms in Vietnam | LA Times

Oct. 16, 2019 | Making A Case for the Interior Life of the Diaspora | diaCritics

Credits

Where The Sea Remembers is organized by TMR and Anna Borisova and curated by César García-Alvarez, TMR Executive and Artistic Director, with Nicolas Orozco-Valdivia, TMR Assistant Curator, and Kris Kuramitsu, TMR Deputy Director and Head of Program. 

This exhibition is part of Histories of a Vanishing Present, TMR’s 2019-2020 curatorial cycle exploring the global dynamics of postmemory. Major support for this cycle is provided by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

TMR's program is made possible with the support of its Board of Directors, Big Mistake Patron Group, International Council, and Contemporary Council.

This exhibition is made possible through a major gift from Stephen O. Lesser.

Special thanks to Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Van Anh Huynh Ngo, Galerie Quynh, Zoe Butt, and Christopher Myers. 

 

Video Credit: Vanya Volkov. Copyright 2019. The Mistake Room Inc.  

Photo Credit: Nicolas Orozco-Valdivia. Copyright 2019. The Mistake Room Inc.