The First Conference on Curating in Vietnam

09:30 am – 06:30 pm, 13 & 14 Apr 2024
Exhibition room, Contemporary Art Center – Vietnam Fine Arts Association
621 Đê La Thành, Hanoi
Conference’s schedule
Registration link

From the organizer:

Á Space and School of Interdisciplinary Sciences and Arts – Vietnam National University, Hanoi with the support from Dogma Collection, Nguyen Art Foundation, and The Outpost Art Organisation would like to invite anyone interested in curatorial practice or contemporary art in Vietnam in general to The First Conference on Curating in Vietnam.

Intending to become a platform for open discussion and critical thinking, The First Conference on Curating in Vietnam themed “Curatorial Practices in Vietnam since the 2000s: Opportunities and Challenges” focuses on addressing immediate issues – practical challenges curators in Vietnam have identified and encountered over the past two decades. The conference aims to identify opportunities and possibilities to expand and develop this profession in Vietnam while laying the groundwork for future curatorial practice-focused programs.

The First Conference on Curating in Vietnam brings together 18 curators, art practitioners, and researchers, as well as representatives from public and private art organizations from Hanoi, Hue, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City, who have been actively contributing to the development of contemporary art in the country.

The conference consists of 5 symposiums, each presented by 3 panelists with specific case studies of art projects in Vietnam. Following the three presentations, the moderator will pose questions to encourage further discussion among panelists and the audience on the presented topics. The conference begins with historical reflections to provide an overview of the development of curatorial practice in Vietnam with Symposium 1: The genealogy of the term “curator” in Vietnam over the years and perspectives on curating. It then delves into practical issues specific to the context of the Vietnamese art scene with Symposium 2: Institution, infrastructure, and community building as curatorial practice, Symposium 3: “Authorship” in curating, Symposium 4: Writing as a curatorial strategy, and Symposium 5: Exhibition as a site for historiography.

In hopes of sparking interest in curatorial practice, art writing, and art history, as well as discovering potential talents, the organizer will also launch a writing competition for students in Hanoi, Vietnam within the framework of this conference. Applicants are encouraged to respond and analyze the topics presented in the symposiums relating to their personal cultural and artistic interests.

The conference serves as the kickoff event for VINACURA, a program co-initiated and co-implemented by Á Space, Nguyen Art Foundation, and The Outpost Art Organisation. VINACURA is a collaborative initiative to share resources and provide mutual support among participating organizations in order to enhance and broaden the professional skills and practical knowledge of curatorial and art writing practitioners in Vietnam.

Conference’s schedule can be seen here

Language: Vietnamese with English translation

Biographies of panelist and moderators

Dương Mạnh Hùng
Dương Mạnh Hùng is an independent translator/ writer/ curator. Their practice weaves textual intricacy with visual subtlety to deliver responses and raise questions about art & society. Hung’s deep-seated fascination with the dynamics of translation in art is informed by their close observations of global and Southeast Asian socio-political and ecological histories. They are perpetually intrigued by moments of sublimation and serendipitous interstices within/between different art forms, and strive to reflect and explicate them through their text-based practice.

Vân Đỗ
Vân Đỗ is a curator and currently Artistic Director and a curatorial board member of Á Space, an artist-initiated independent space established in Hanoi 2018 for experimental art practices. Her practice concerns artistic interventions and negotiation of existing sites and seeks to create critically engaged spaces with the local communities.

Châu Hoàng
Châu Hoàng is an independent curator and art manager from Ha Noi, and a member of Á Space’s Curatorial Board.

Linh Lê
Linh Lê is an independent curator and researcher from Ho Chi Minh City, and a member of Á Space’s Curatorial Board.

Lê Thuận Uyên
Lê Thuận Uyên currently serves as Artistic Director of The Outpost Art Organisation. Her practice investigates formal articulations that are rooted in the social context and aesthetic traditions of Vietnam. Uyên is also a keen advocate for integrating art experiences into the universal educational system, as well as building capacity for the Vietnamese art landscape.

Ngô Thanh
Ngô Thanh reads, writes, listens and contemplates along with cinema, art and literature. Anchoring herself in human and non-human encounters, she respects sharing, articulation and touching.

Nguyễn Anh Tuấn
Nguyễn Anh Tuấn is a curator and art manager based in Hanoi, Vietnam. After earning his Degree in Art History and Theory from Hanoi University of Fine Arts, which is now the Vietnam University of Fine Arts, Tuấn worked at the Institute of Fine Arts’ Research Department of Ancient Fine Arts until 2015. Tuấn began working as the Artistic Director of Heritage Space, an independent art organization in Hanoi, at the beginning of 2016.

Bill Nguyễn
Bill Nguyễn is an artist-curator committed to the researching and development of locally-driven modes of curatorial articulation and artistic practice. Through various formats of artistic practices and curatorial pursuits, he delves into themes such as intimacy, foreignness, cultural contiguity and historical truth. Bill is currently the Director of Nguyen Art Foundation.

Nguyễn Huy An
Born in 1982 in Hanoi and graduated from the Vietnam Fine Art University in 2008, Nguyễn Huy An tries to dive into the darkness of psychology through his works. Most of his projects have been underpinned by an obsession with memory and the complexities of a pessimistic perspective. From installations, performance art to paintings and sculptures, Huy An’s works are highly acclaimed by international art critics and curators for their introspective, simple and strong concepts.

Nguyễn Như Huy
Nguyễn Như Huy is a curator, poet, art critic, and translator. He was a co-curator of Singapore Biennale 2013 and Kuandu Biennale 2015. Huy is the founder and artistic director of ZeroStation, an art project-based space in Saigon. Huy has published two collections of poems and translated Martin Heidegger into Vietnamese.

Nguyễn Quốc Thành
Nguyễn Quốc Thành works as an artist, and a curator. He is a co-founding member of Nhà Sàn Collective and is a member of its curatorial board. In 2013, he founded Queer Forever! festival which has since become an on-going project, a pop-up cinema, book and zine workshop, kitchen, space of queer gathering, listening, learning, and loving.

Nguyễn Thế Sơn
Living and working in Hanoi, Nguyễn Thế Sơn is a visual artist, a photographer, a curator and a lecturer at the Hanoi National University. Nguyễn Thế Sơn holds a Bachelor in Fine Arts from the Hanoi University of Fine Arts (now the Vietnam University of Fine Arts), and graduated with a Master of Fine Arts Photography and Experimental Arts at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts, Being.

Nguyễn Thị Thanh Mai
Nguyễn Thị Thanh Mai is a visual artist and lecturer at Huế University of Arts. After co-founding Mơ Đơ Space (2019) and Nổ Cái Bùm Art Week in Huế (2020), she worked in different positions such as regional representative of Mekong Cultural Hub (2021-2022), founder of Bờ Thành project (2021-2022), and organizer of several small local cultural and artistic events. She is interested in gathering resources and creating space for local connection and creativity within her means.

Trần Hậu Yên Thế
Trần Hậu Yên Thế (b. 1970) is a visual artist and art researcher. He holds a BA in Painting (1995), an MA in Oil Painting (2004), and a PhD in Art Theory and History (2017). He received the Bùi Xuân Phái Award in 2014 and 2020.

Arlette Quỳnh-Anh Trần
Arlette Quỳnh-Anh Trần is an art laborer based in Saigon. She makes art collectively and individually and curates and writes for various local and international publications, exhibitions, and projects. Her artworks blend politics and sci-fi aesthetics through the assemblages of animation, 3D design, historical archives, and architecture. She creates a non-linear and absurd reading of modern histories that question the dominant post-Cold War narratives about the Third World. Arlette is obsessed with the fantasy of a futuristic Third World utopia in which political ideals are remixed, and human and non-human beings coexist and amalgamate.

Vũ Đức Toàn
Vũ Đức Toàn works primarily with performance and installation. He received his degree in Art History and Theory from the Vietnam University of Fine Arts. In 2010, Vũ Đức Toàn and Nguyễn Huy An founded the Appendix Group, a group of Hanoi-based performance artists. He has been a member of the Curatorial Board of Nhà Sàn Collective since 2013 and Á Space since 2024.

Dr. Vũ Thị Hà
Vũ Thị Hà is a researcher at the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology. She earned her Ph.D. in Anthropology from the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences. Her research interests include urban anthropology and the adaptation of ethnic groups in the context of urbanization.

Xuân Hạ
Xuân Hạ is an artist and community-engaged art practitioner currently living and working in Đà Nẵng. Her recent interests delve into socio-cultural changes and their impacts on the environment and indigenous identities within Central Vietnam. Notably, she assumes the roles of co-founder and manager within two collective groups: Chaosdowntown Chao (Saigon, 2015-2019) and A Sông (Đà Nẵng, 2019-present).

The First Conference on Curating in Vietnam*
Initiated and Organized by: Á Space
Co-organized by: School of Interdisciplinary Sciences and Arts – Vietnam National University, Hanoi (VNU-SIS)
Diamond Sponsor: Dogma Collection
Gold Sponsor: Nguyen Art Foundation
Media Partner: Art Republik
With support from The Outpost Art Organisation
*Part of VINACURA, a project co-initiated and co-conceived by Á Space, Nguyen Art Foundation, and The Outpost Art Organisation

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