“Ceci n’est pas une guerre – This is Not a War”
23 May – 23 Aug 2025
Eli Klein Gallery
398 West St, New York, NY 10014, United States
From the organizer:
Taking inspiration from Magritte’s phrase, “Ceci n’est pas une pipe,” the exhibition reframes how Vietnamese contemporary art is seen and felt. Moving beyond the battlefield, “Ceci n’est pas une guerre – This is Not a War” brings together a cross generational group of 17 Vietnamese artists both from Vietnam and the diaspora, working across painting, sculpture, lacquer, installation, and performance. Their diverse practices reflect the multiplicity of Vietnamese identities and experiences today.
Fifty years after the Vietnam War, its specter still lingers–what once offered recognition has hardened into expectation, confining Vietnamese art within inherited narratives of war, loss, and endurance. “Ceci n’est pas une guerre – This is Not a War” opens a space where those expectations are unsettled, and where other modes of expressions come into focus. The exhibition foregrounds practices that engage with identity, memory, queerness, and displacement. Rather than reenacting history, it is an invitation to new ways of seeing the past. Vietnam is not just its past conflicts, and its art is not merely a response to war. “Ceci n’est pas une guerre – This is Not a War” is a refusal to be reduced, and a call to witness the vitality and complexity of Vietnamese contemporary visual culture.
Artists:
Bùi Công Khánh, Bùi Thanh Tâm, Ca Lê Thắng, Đoàn Văn Tới, My-Lan Hoàng-Thủy, Lê Hoàng Bích Phương, Oanh Phi Phi, Nguyễn Phương Linh, Thuỳ Anh Nguyễn, Xuân-Lam Nguyễn, Hà Ninh Phạm, Phạm Tuấn Tú, Arlette Quỳnh-Anh Trần, Trần Lương, Trương Tân, Vân Khánh, Minh Dũng Vũ.
Curator: Đỗ Tường Linh
Do Tuong Linh is a curator based in Hanoi (Vietnam) and New York City (United States). Linh holds a BA in Art History and theoretical criticism from Vietnam University of Fine Arts, and a MA in Contemporary Art and Art Theory of Asia and Africa, at SOAS (University of London) UK with the prestigious Alphawood scholarship. She is a part of Bard Curatorial Studies program class of 2025 and was part of the curatorial team of 12th Berlin Biennial.
Linh has engaged in various art exhibitions and projects in Southeast Asia, Europe and beyond since 2005. She participated in international arts programs such as Le 18 Curator In Residency 2024, Asia Cultural Council Research Fellowship 2023, Ljubljana Graphic Art Biennial 2019, Slovenia; Association of Art Museum Curators conference, New York, USA; Mekong Cultural Hub 2018 – 2019, Taiwan; CIMAM International Museum Workshop 2018, Oslo, Norway; Asia Culture Center (Gwangju, Korea) 2018; Tate Intensive 2018, Tate Modern Museum, UK; French Encounter at Art Basel in Hong Kong 2018.
Some of her notable curated exhibitions include Who is Weaving the Sky Net (Singapore), Means of Production 2024 (New York City, USA), Revived Photo Hanoi 2023 (Hanoi, Vietnam), Berlin Biennial 2022 (Berlin, Germany), Citizen Earth 2020 (Hanoi, Vietnam), The Foliage 3 (VCCA, Vincom Center for Contemporary Arts, Hanoi, Vietnam) 2019, Geo-Resilience of the All-world at La Colonie (Paris, France) 2018, the No War, No Vietnam exhibition at Galerie Nord (Berlin, Germany) 2018, and SEAcurrents (London, UK) 2017.
For more information, read here
