SOLOMARATHON 2025 | “Water, ant and rice grain”
Opening: 06 PM – 08 PM, Sat 31 Jan 2026
Showcase: 03 PM – 07 PM, 01 – 07 Feb 2026
Á Space
Alley 59 Ngô Gia Tự, Long Biên district, Hà Nội
From the organizer:
Á Space warmly invites you to visit ‘Water, ant and rice grain’ – a showcase by Quế (Nguyễn Đức Hùng) and Huế Nguyễn closing off their three-month residency at Á as part of SOLOMARATHON 2025 program.
Rain pours over. An ant is treading. On its back sits a grain of rice.
Where is the ant going? When will the rain stop? Why didn’t the ant leave the rice grain behind?
We follow its path. All of a sudden, a water flow sweeps the ant away with the rice grain. It struggles to reach the land just to find itself again in the water.
Tracing the ant’s path with unsettling thoughts on labor, floods, food, as well as loneliness and abandonment, “Water, Ant and Rice Grain” showcases new works alongside research on Vietnamese animation respectively by Quế and Huế. Born and thriving within the context of the country’s Revolutionary cinema, Vietnamese animated films were geared toward shaping children and younger generations in the new socialist ideal: patriotic, diligent and disciplined, creative and hard-working, honest and brave to join the battlefront, and willing to sacrifice for the common good. Reflecting on these agendas, “Water, ant and rice grain” expands its inquiry to broader concerns with regards to national image constructed through the self and the collective; perceptions, beliefs, and propaganda; and the Five Teachings of Uncle Ho which have served as a guiding compass for the majority of animations produced.
Huế Nguyễn (b.2001, Nam Dinh) gained a BA in Art and Media Studies at Fulbright University Vietnam and is currently pursuing an MA in Critical and Curatorial Studies of Contemporary Art at National Taipei University of Education. Her research and curatorial interests include East and Southeast Asian art (with focuses on Vietnam, Laos, Taiwan), urban ecology, and socialist visual culture
Quế (Nguyễn Đức Hùng, b. 2002) is a self-taught visual artist and independent producer from Danang, currently living and working in Saigon, Vietnam. Shifting from photography to moving images, animation, graphic works, light and bio installations, his work engages with themes of collective memory and history, urban space and living conditions, migration, labor, and zones of ambiguity. Across such different social contexts and thinking through “water and what is found in water,” his visual metaphors reveal an ecosystem of meaning, within which recurring structural patterns become visible.
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