HCMC – Exhibition “Venus in Vietnam: Vu Dan Tan and Nguyen Nghia Cuong”

Opening: Fri 10 Jan, 6 pm with an introduction by Iola Lenzi
Exhibition: 11 – 24 Jan 2014, 9 am – 6 pm
Art Talk: Sun 12 Jan, 3.30 pm
HCMC Fine Arts Museum

From Goethe Institut:

Goethe-Institut presents: Exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts HCMC

Venus in Vietnam: Vu Dan Tan and Nguyen Nghia Cuong

Installation and sculptural work by Vu Dan Tan and by Nguyen Nghia Cuong, focusing on the image of femininity. The exhibition compares and contrasts the works of two Hanoi artists a generation apart.

Originally organized in 2012 in Hanoi by Goethe-Institut and curated by Iola Lenzi in collaboration with Vu Dan Tan Foundation, the critically acclaimed exhibition Venus in Vietnam moves this coming January to the Museum of Fine Arts, Ho Chi Minh City. Venus in Vietnam- Ho Chi Minh will mark the first ever curated institutional presentation of seminal contemporary artist Vu Dan Tan in the South.

The exhibition Venus in Vietnam features works by Vu Dan Tan (1946 -2009), that are still very little known in Vietnam: Delicate cardboard suits and miniature installations of female figures in glass-lidded cigarette boxes.

Vu Dan Tan, whose multi-media cross-disciplinary practice broke new ground in the 1980s with its playful and conceptual use of found materials, is a leading artists of Vietnam’s post-doi moi scene. In Venus in Vietnam Goethe Institut presents Vu Dan Tan’s internationally-exhibited Fashion series, yet widely unknown in Vietnam.

Nguyen Nghia Cuong (b. 1973), a graduate of Vietnam Fine Arts University, is known for his ironic approach to contemporary reality, dominated by consumerism and brand-culture. Here he presents his recent painted card box series Beauty High Quality investigating the intersection between popular culture, advertising, and life and society.

The present exhibition showcases works focusing on female iconography and sexuality, and these two themes’ expanded meaning in the social and cultural context of late twentieth century-early 21st century Vietnam. Vu Dan Tan’s key works of the last decade, juxtaposed with new works by Nguyen Nghia Cuong, together offer a so far little-explored but art historically relevant perspective on the role played by gender, sexuality and woman in Vietnamese visual art of the turn of the century.

Venus in Vietnam: Vu Dan Tan and Nguyen Nghia Cuong is documented by a comprehensively illustrated catalogue including an essay by Southeast Asian contemporary art specialist Iola Lenzi, a researcher and a frequent curator of Vu Dan Tan.

Free admission

Art Talk with Q&A:

presented by Goethe-Institut HCMC in collaboration with artist Nguyen Nghia Cuong and curators Natalia Kraevskaia and Iola Lenzi.

Iola Lenzi:
Tan’s Women: the expanded reading of erotic iconographies in the art of Vu Dan Tan

Natalia Kraevskaia:
In conversation with Nguyen Nghia Cuong
Natalia Kraevskaia will present Cuong’s work in the context of the exhibition theme, and then pose the artist salient questions about his perspective on women and his use of artistic practice to explore this central topic.

The panel will open the discussion to the attending public at the end of the art conversation.

Free Admission. English with Vietnamese translation.

Read Ilza Burchett’s review and Anna Pia Hudtloff’s comments on the exhibition in Hanoi.