HCMC – Artist Talk by Nguyen Huy An

Sat 01 Nov 2014, 3 pm
Galerie Quynh

From the organizer:

You are invited to an artist talk by Nguyen Huy An on the occasion of his current solo show ‘78 rhythms’. Nguyen Huy An will discuss the major themes in the exhibition and the experiences that have inspired his practice.

Huy An’s work is the manifestation of emotions and ideas on the materials of everyday life: a bundle of entangled thread tucked in the corner of two walls, dust and dirt stuck on the surface of a string of tapes, or plain sheets of papers stacked on top of one another. This manifestation could be manifold; sometimes it is about the tension between time and space, the past and the present, the nostalgia for nature and the inexorable juggernaut of human progress.

During the artist talk, Huy An will urge the audience to reflect on the context of a growing economy that estranges human beings from the values of life that they’ve grown up embracing. The artist states, “It’s important to look and realize how modernity, and by extension the passage of time, casts shadows on our existence and engenders zones of darkness in our collective psychology.” The artist will also touch on the connection between the North and the South and the exhibition being a presentation of Hanoi in the heart of Saigon, one that “opens up conversations on our history, our current state of being and hopefully, our future.”

Born in 1982 in Hanoi, Nguyen Huy An is among the most dynamic and innovative artists of his generation. He has participated in numerous exhibitions and performance art festivals including Disrupted Choreographies, Carré d’Art – Musée d’Art Contemporain, Nimes, France (2014); If The World Changed, Singapore Biennale (2013); sounds of dust (somniloquy), 943 Studio Kunming, China (2011); Anatomy of an assembly line with an error, Nha San Studio, Hanoi, Vietnam; Lim Dim, Stenersen Museum, Oslo, Norway (2009); Tam Ta, San Art, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (2009); and the Nippon International Performance Art Festival (NIPAF), Tokyo, Japan (2007).

In 2010 Huy An co-founded with artists Vu Duc Toan and Hoang Minh Duc the performance art collective The Appendix Group (Phu Luc). The group has performed in festivals in Vietnam, Singapore and China. Nguyen Huy An lives and works in Hanoi, Vietnam.

* Please note that the event is free and open to public. The talk will be conducted in Vietnamese with English translation.