VIETNAM EYE Contemporary Vietnamese Art To India a lovely grand-daughter VIETNAM EYE Contemporary Vietnamese Art edited by Serenella Ciclitira Sponsored by Art director First published in Italy in 2016 Founder of Global Eye Programme We would like to thank the following Supported by Marcello Francone by Skira Editore S.p.A. David Ciclitira Vuong Duy Bien, Vice Minister, Palazzo Casati Stampa Design Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, via Torino 61 Editor Luigi Fiore Socialist Republic of Vietnam 20123 Milano Serenella Ciclitira Editorial coordination Italy H. E. Cecilia Piccioni, Ambassador of Italy Eva Vanzella www.skira.net Curators to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Copy editor © 2016 Parallel Serenella Ciclitira H. E. Giles Lever, Ambassador of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism Emanuela Di Lallo Contemporary Art Nigel Hurst United Kingdom to the Socialist Republic © 2016 Skira editore Layout Niru Ratnam of Vietnam Serena Parini All the staff at the Italian Embassy in Hanoi All rights reserved under Local Advisors international copyright Minh Do Tran Luong conventions. No part of this book may Vi Kien Thanh Special thanks to AIA Embassy of Italy, Hanoi be reproduced or utilized Event and Account Director in any form or by any means, Art Vietnam Gallery Belinda Laubi electronic or mechanical, Zoe Butt including photocopying, recording, or any information Project Coordinator & Artist Liaison CHON Gallery Hanoi storage and retrieval system, Kwok Shao Hui Craig Thomas Gallery without permission in writing Galerie Quynh Event Coordinator from the publisher. Judith Hughes Ngo Quang Minh Printed and bound in Italy. Mizuma Art Gallery, Tokyo First edition Authors of the Essays Thavibu Art Advisory Nguyen Quan ISBN: 978-88-572-3360-4 All collectors who have loaned works Niru Ratnam Distributed in USA, Canada, All the artists without whom this book Central & South America Vietnamese Partner would not have been possible by Rizzoli International Minh Do Publications, Inc., 300 Park All PCA staff Avenue South, New York, NY 10010, USA. Distributed elsewhere in the world by Thames and Hudson Ltd., 181A High Holborn, London WC1V 7QX, United Kingdom. Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism The AIA Vietnam Eye project and its book Vietnam Eye: Contemporary Vietnamese Art, with its own perspective, introduce a part of Vietnam’s contemporary art between the Doi Moi era (1986) and the present time, giving domestic and international audiences another view on this country’s contemporary artists. This event contributes to the promotion of the Vietnamese art scene in general, and also helps with the understanding of Vietnamese society in terms of sharing human and artistic values with the public at large. The book features 56 contemporary artists, both established and young and emerging ones. They have been and are still contributing to the development of a fascinating art scene in Vietnam since the mid-1980s. I am delighted that the AIA Vietnam Eye and the book are being implemented. I believe that this is a good opportunity to introduce Vietnamese contemporary art to a wide public both at home and abroad, helping art lovers and experts everywhere to have a better understanding of a flourishing art scene with many unique and interesting characteristics. A number of exciting artworks will be on display at the Saatchi Gallery, one of the many important art spaces in the UK. This will help further promote Vietnamese contemporary art to the world. I thank AIA Vietnam for sponsoring the project, along with Parallel Contemporary Art, the sponsors, artists, curators, and all those who have made the exhibition and the book possible. I hope this book will mark another significant milestone in the long and unfinished journey of Vietnamese contemporary art. Vuong Duy Bien Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Socialist Republic of Vietnam photo © Tho Le Asia’s rapid economic growth and social change have outpaced the rest of the world, and Vietnam is leading that charge of creating change within Asia. The flourishing growth in Vietnamese contemporary art is starting to reflect that. Going beyond its immediate intrinsic value, contemporary art plays an important role in promoting social and economic goals. It facilitates the development of talent and innovation, fosters growth in creative industries, enhances life and improves community cohesion. Founded in Asia over a century ago, AIA is a huge believer in the potential of Asia; our purpose is to make a fundamental contribution to the social and economic development that is taking place in our region. We continue to engage and assist multiple generations of families around the region to live longer, healthier, better lives. With this, AIA is proud to contribute to Vietnam’s blossoming art scene by being a part of the exciting initiative AIA Vietnam Eye. Through this programme, we hope to develop a thriving arts ecology that offers Vietnamese people the chance to enjoy, participate and create. Arts and culture are crucial to the imagination, self-expression and creativity in young people and to the development of skills that fuel the success of various industries in Vietnam, and will shape the next generation of talent in this country. It is AIA’s pleasure to partner with Parallel Contemporary Art and the Saatchi Gallery to nurture emerging talents, to enable Vietnamese contemporary art and bring the programme to art enthusiasts around the world. We wish for this to extend beyond just the core arts community. Gordon Watson Regional Chief Executive of AIA Group Gordon Watson, Serenity As the Real Life Company, AIA is committed to help families in Vietnam and across the region to live longer, healthier, better lives. We also believe that art and culture can illuminate and enrich people’s lives. They have an important impact on education, the economy and the health and wellbeing of our society. Art enables us to become more imaginative, innovative, and better connected with each other. AIA Vietnam Eye shares the same values with AIA, since it encapsulates our longstanding commitment to be deeply engaged in people’s lives and make a positive impact in the communities where we operate. The Vietnamese art scene is steadily growing into a vibrant and diverse network. In addition to bringing awareness of international art world trends, Vietnamese artists find unique ways to express themselves in various forms and languages, always with a deep connection to the local culture, history and social context. AIA Vietnam Eye not only supports the development of local emerging artists, it also serves as a catalyst for their international exposure and contributes to the development of the vibrant emerging art scene in the country. This book is a comprehensive publication of Vietnamese contemporary artistic scenario and offers an unprecedented in-depth look at our country’s artists. We are also pleased to share our resources, including our flagship customer and event space called nest by AIA, to enable the project to reach out to a wider audience – children, families and the general public – with the exhibition of selected artists from this project. On behalf of AIA Vietnam, I would like to thank our partners Parallel Contemporary Art and the Saatchi Gallery for their vision and support, as well as the Vietnamese Ministry of Culture for their unwavering support. We hope this project will fulfil its role to contribute a new and exciting future to Vietnam contemporary art community. Wayne Besant Chief Executive Officer of AIA Vietnam nest by AIA, Vietnam It gives us great pleasure to be writing this foreword to AIA Vietnam Eye, the eighth project in the Global Eye Programme. The Programme, an initiative that Parallel Contemporary Art founded in 2009, has worked in partnership with the Saatchi Gallery focusing on providing an international platform for new art scenes in Asia. In recent years, it has become clear that Vietnam’s contemporary artists have been making increasingly confident steps towards establishing a genuinely exciting art scene. Reforms that took place thirty years ago in art education have borne fruit with a new generation of artists who have been able to combine local concerns with a sophisticated awareness of the language of international contemporary art. The growth of an international Vietnamese diaspora also meant that a number of artists, such as Dinh Q. Le, grew up with both a global and a Vietnamese sensibility. Many of these diaspora artists and art professionals have returned, at least for part of their working time, to Vietnam contributing to the growth of its art scene, which was reflected in commercial galleries and not-for-profit organizations that have opened over the past ten years. So it seems the right moment to offer a large-scale survey of this scene, which is what AIA Vietnam Eye hopes to achieve. Over the last seven years the Global Eye Programme has published books and developed exhibitions on the emerging art scenes of Korea, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. Vietnam is a worthy addition to this list. The Programme aims to survey art scenes at the moment where we believe they are starting to make a significant impression on international curators, critics and wider audiences. From a personal perspective, we have witnessed the rise of younger Vietnamese artists such as Ha Manh Thang, whose handling of paint has seen him exhibit alongside renowned international artists such as Gerhard Richter and Peter Doig. We were personally delighted to see his paintings at the START Art Fair at the Saatchi Gallery, London this year. Similarly, it was good to see other emerging Vietnamese artists on the international art circuit, such as Le Quy Tong in New York and Nguyen Huy An at the Istanbul Biennial. However, it seems important now to see these artists show their work together in Vietnam and this is why it is so important to have this exhibition as well as the accompanying book, which gives a wider context of this scene.