Exhibition “The Broken Chapters” by Visual Artist Nguyễn Trần Nam

Opening: Mon 06 Jan, 6 – 8 pm
Exhibition: 06 – 26 Jan 2014
Manzi Art Space

From Manzi:

In collaboration with Hanoi Grapevine, Manzi art space is proud to present ‘The Broken Chapters’ by visual artist Nguyễn Trần Nam – one of the second-wave contemporary artists in Hanoi.

The exhibition space, bare and colourless. A video of a bullet ripping through the air, looped and muted. Texts describing the very moment before, during and after one is executed, detailed and handwritten. A home video of a father and son bonding moment, found and slowed down. A group photograph of young men, smiling and almost washed out. A conversation between a father and his son, absurd and mounted on the walls.

These are part of THE BROKEN CHAPTERS, a showcase of new artworks by Nguyen Tran Nam currently taking place at manzi art space from 06 – 26 January 2014. Rooted in the stories of his own, but reaching out to tell the stories of others, Nam’s work is personal yet universal, dealing with themes such as violence, death and the father and son relationship. Using the notion of war as a backdrop, Nam offers a perspective on how ideologies and beliefs could shape a generation’s identity and perception, whilst demonstrating the gaps, the missing pieces and the powerful bonds between one generation and another, regardless of how isolated or far-removed they are – or desire to be – from each other. With a recurring interest in war novels and film, and inspired by his father’s experiences as a military engineer during the Vietnam-America war and later as a propaganda painter, the artist took on the role of both a memory excavator and a fiction storyteller, weaving real-life details with made-up stories to form an imaginary realm unbound by truth, place or time.

Nguyen Tran Nam

Born in 1979, Nguyen Tran Nam is considered one of the second-wave contemporary artists in Hanoi closely associated with Nha San Studio (now re-named Nha San Collective) – one of the first artist-led experimental art spaces of Northern Vietnam. Since graduating from the Vietnam University of Fine art in 2003, Nam has been producing a diverse body of multimedia work, which takes inspiration from his own experience coming from a working-class family, growing up in the countryside of Hung Yen province and later migrating to the capital to study painting. At times dark and heavy, others playful and sarcastic, his work makes visible both past and present-day social, political and historical issues of Vietnam, while highlighting the individual tales of and human relationships between people who often belong to the lower class of society such as labourers, farmers, engineers. Selected exhibitions include ‘Hinterland’, Luggage Store Gallery, San Francisco (2012); ‘Gap’, Nhasan Studio, Hanoi, Vietnam (2010); ‘Indefinitely’, Ryllega Gallery, Hanoi, Vietnam (2008).

Brought to you by manzi & Hanoi Grapevine

Proudly supported by the Prince Claus Fund

Manzi Art Space 14 Phan Huy Ich, Hanoi