NEWS
11 July 2024
Artist’s Talk at Galerie Archiv Massiv, Spinnerei Leipzig / Germany
The artist’s talk was part of the group exhibition Seeing Double during the exchange program ‘Ecologies of Water’ at LIA Leipzig International Art Program. In the talk, I shared about my research on Leipzig’s waterscapes transformation in relation to coal mining and renewable energy, with reflections on public water pollution in Vietnam.
Photography
Marina D. Molina (LIA-Leipzig)
2-3 March 2024
‘Natural Pigment-Making’ Workshop at Lá Library / Vietnam
A two-day workshop at Lá Library in Ninh Bình / Vietnam where I shared about natural colour making methods and my experiments with several techniques. Participants were also guided to forage earthen pigments in the garden and the forest ethically, to learn a brief history of natural pigment-making, the basics of natural watercolour making and its applications. Throughout the workshop, they were invited to reconnect with nature and to find ways to work with nature respectfully.
Photography
Lá Library
21 October 2023
The Gathering at live.make.share international residency / Vietnam
During artist Sophie Hughes and photographer-curator Ariel Cameron' residencies at live.make.share 2023, I was invited to co-host the event The Gathering. I performed an extract of mirror-scraping process, with sound excerpt by artist Nhung Nguyễn from our collaboration - the multimedia work Lakes.
In addition, Sophie, Ariel and I each led a walking session and brought up discussions on art and ecology. For my group, we walked along the rice fields and waterways of Hiên Vân village, beside the heavily industrial areas of Bắc Ninh city. We discussed water ecology/ water pollution as well as interdisciplinary practices, with participants among those were environmental engineer, sound artists, visual artist and local art enthusiasts.
Photography
live.make.share
20 May 2022
Public talk coordination - Southern Mirror Paintings at Sàn Art / Vietnam
“As part of Sàn Art Studio’s public program for artist Chi L. Nguyen’s residency, we hosted a talk about mirror paintings in Southern Vietnam, presented by Nguyen Duc Huy – a prominent collector and conservator of over 60 mirror paintings.
During the hour-long presentation, Huy traced and detailed the art form’s origin and historical development, starting out as decorative art on Chinese snuff-boxes, to intricate art pieces adorning the Nguyen palaces’ interior spaces, to its ubiquitous presence on vendor carts and shop fronts in Cho Lon. Aside from decorative purposes, mirror paintings are widely used in various worship settings and religious spaces, most notably, artisans in Cho Lon during the 50s and 60s specialized in paintings of Buddha, domestic guardian gods, and ancestors. Some mirror paintings even contain messages of good fortune and well wishes hidden in clever wordplays. And even though the art form was brought to Vietnam through the immigration and flourishing of Chinese populations, it had adapted, both in form and content, to the cultural needs of its locale.
This presentation was given in conjunction to Chi’s interest in researching mirror painting’s religious fable, figures motifs and application in the daily lives of Southern Vietnamese communities.”
Text & Photography
Sàn Art
25 March 2021
Public talk coordination - ‘Mirrors of Confinement’ Project at Goethe-Institut Hanoi / Vietnam
During the 2020-2021 COVID pandemic, with support from Goethe-Institut’s Ignite Creativity Grant, I initiated Mirrors of Confinement - a project paying tribute to German choreographer Pina Bausch and responding to the global crisis. The project consists of a dance-theater work The Room 1, a screening of Wim Wenders’s feature-length film Pina, and a virtual talk with dance-artist Nazareth Panadero from Tanztheater Wuppertal.
Photography
Goethe-Institut Hanoi
November 2020
First Prize and Voters’ Choice with Collective Sōnsōn at Vietnam Design Week 2020
In the midst of the 2020 COVID pandemic, I co-founded Collective Sōnsōn (formerly Phường Son Collective) with artist-designer Trần Thảo Miên and Linh Trịnh. As a collective, we entered the national competition Designed by Vietnam - Vietnam Design Week 2020 with a set of home objects titled Stillness Corner and won First Prize & Voters’ Choice.
Stillness Corner and Collective Sōnsōn were created at the intersection of art, design and traditional crafts with the hope to establish a harmonious trinity of nature, human and mindfulness in the modern Vietnamese living space.
During my two years as a co-founder and collective member, Stillness Corner was exhibited at Vietnam Design Week 2020, Vietnam Design Week 2021 and featured on Elle Decoration Vietnam among others. In 2022, I officially parted ways with Collective Sōnsōn.
Photography
Ashui.com
Vietnam Festival of Creativity & Design
5 October 2019
‘Góp bát, góp đũa, góp nhời thổi cơm’ Workshop at Ba-Bau A.I.R / Vietnam
As part of the public programs in Citizen Earth, together with auntie Tám - a farmer from Bắc Giang, Mùa Mua - a H’Mong student and social activist, I co-hosted a social dinner at Ba-Bau A.I.R. Each host brought a particular local ingredient to prepare a dish and to initiate discussion on environmental and social aspects attached to the selected ingredient. The event-workshop was initiated by Six Space and curator Đỗ Tường Linh.
Citizen Earth is the one-year year project by Six Space that brought together artists and researchers from various fields to broaden discussions on environmental awareness and encourage action for positive change in Vietnam with support from Goethe-Institut and Prince Claus Fund in 2020-2021.
Photography
Six Space