Month of Arts Practice 2022
03 Oct – 15 Dec 2022
Hà Nội, Việt Nam & Online
From the organizer:
Month of Arts Practice (MAP) abbreviated as MAP, is an annual art project of Heritage Space. MAP was initiated and operated since 2015 with a view to creating a space for composing and developing contemporary art on the basis of cooperation and interaction among Vietnamese and international artists. Each year, MAP sets out a specific theme, inviting the participation of international acclaimed artists and curators come to Hanoi (Vietnam) to practice and exchange with talented young Vietnamese artists..
Month of Arts Practice 2022 – the 8th season of MAP continues with the WAR theme. Through discussion and art practice during their residency in Vietnam from October to December, artists together reflect, exchange, and present their premonitions about the wars from the past to present time by different perspectives and minor histories, about unknown entanglements, unnamed truths, and uncertain future in a volatile world. The work results will be presented to the public through Artist’s talk, especially during the Final Exhibition 2022 at the end of November in Hanoi.
There are 10 artists from Germany, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam participating in this project: Oscar Lebeck, Miho Shimizu, Bae Byung Wook, Ryusuke Ito, Sodam Lim, Nguyễn Minh Hoàng, Mi Fa, Jo Ngô & Lê Minh Châu and Lê Tú Anh. The project also has contributions and mentoring through lectures and exchanges from experts: curator Haruka Iharada (居原田遥), Dr. Pamela Nguyen Corey, curator Gahee Park, Prof. Dr. Nora Annesley Taylor, and guest artist Lê Nguyễn Duy Phương.
Month of Arts Practice 2022 is organized by Heritage Space in close cooperation with Japan Foundation Center for Cultural Exchange in Vietnam, Korea Foundation, and with the support of the Vietnam Institutes for Cultural and Art Studies (VICAS), Á Space, Matca, APD Center for Art Patronage and Development, Nha San Collective, the Goethe-Institut, TÁCH Space, A sông, Hanoi Grapevine, Artplas and Art Republik Vietnam.
Programme:
30 Oct: The 1st Artist’s talk – What do I say when I talk about the war?
05 Nov: The 2nd Artist’s talk – What do I say when I talk about the war?
12 Nov: The 3rd Artist’s talk – What do I say when I talk about the war?
19 Nov: The 4th Artist’s talk – What do I say when I talk about the war?
27 Nov – 17 Dec (10 am – 07 pm everyday): WAITING ROOM, the MAP 2022 exhibition.
03 Dec – 17 Dec (10:30 am – 12 pm every weekend): WAITING ROOM Exhibition tour.
WAR
To talk about war there are only tears.
Henriqueta Lisboa
The greatest obsession to each nation is, perhaps, war. This obsession is so great that human history seems to be a continuation of wars, one after another, as an unbelievable and sorrowful fact.
The greatest obsession to each nation is also, perhaps, the fear of war, even though they are living in peace and tranquility. This is how the human world seems to be, always in a state of anxiety, a waiting room for something that might come unannounced, which is, of course, not just disasters from nature.
War, which is associated with the fate of each country, with the relationship between the rich and the poor, between different skin colors… War, which is associated with the political manipulations of a group of people which has enough power to bring one and many nations, the whole of humanity under fire and sword. War, which is unable to be fully recorded in books, is the tragedy of every individual, widows, orphans, or brothers who lost their lives in the same battle. The number of war victims can never be counted and its consequences last more than one generation.
Since inception, war has also been a great obsession in Art. Art denounces the horrors of war, denounces the animal part and the instinct that makes humans want to destroy their neighbor. Art bears witness to self-destructive belligerents. Art wishes to build a more just world, and demands that the freedom of each nation be respected. Art also condemns war as a tool of those who lust for power, who have little regard for the lives of people who sacrificed for them. Thus, the subject of art seems to be the melancholy reverse side of war, a cry against the war, not the praises of war as glory and honor for those who take part in it.
“The first casualty when war comes is truth” (Rudyard Kipling). This truth has always been hidden behind what has been concocted by both the winner and the loser, known as the «truth», for years, centuries, if not forever.
Today, a war from any corner of the world can become a common war of the whole of humanity, more than ever. Today, war can take on other forms, in areas other than military. Not only existing in memory, war can resurrect at any time, infringing on the life and rights of any one who is far away from the front line. Also, Vietnam has been at peace for 40 years, but it feels as if war only ended yesterday, because its consequences are still so painful and vivid.
MAP 2022 invites artists to work in Hanoi, where the memory of war never fades. They will express their thoughts and feelings about war, about specific wars of the present and past. They will of course need to express personal views that may be against others’. They will work and talk together in a gallery space, as if they were in a WAITING ROOM for an uncertain world, for some war that is far away or has not yet happened. The WAITING ROOM can therefore also be the name of MAP 2022 final exhibition.
– Trần Trọng Vũ
* Notes:
– «Para falar de guerra só existem lágrimas» by Henriqueta Lisboa.
– «The first casualty when war comes is truth», by Rudyard Kipling, there are also opinions that this statement belongs to Hiram Johnson.
