In Stranger Lands: Cacaos Journeys to Asia

Opening: 06:30 pm, Fri 15 Mar 2024 at EMASI Nam Long
Exhibition: 15 Mar – July 2024
10 am – 04 pm, Wed, Fri & Sat
EMASI Nam Long
147 Street No. 8, Nam Long Residential Area, District 7, HCMC
10 am – 04 pm, Tues, Thurs & Sat
EMASI Vạn Phúc
2 Street No. 5, Vạn Phúc Residential Area, Thủ Đức, HCMC

Nguyen Art Foundation (NAF) proudly invites you to the opening reception of In Stranger Lands: Cocoa’s Journeys To Asia, a two-part exhibition curated by Caroline Ha Thuc, featuring 17 newly commissioned artworks from established artists working across Asia, including Ravi Agarwal (India), Timoteus Anggawan Kusno (Indonesia), Antariksa (Indonesia), Agung Firmanto Budiharto (Indonesia), Bui Cong Khanh (Vietnam), Cian Dayrit (Philippines), Cyril Delettre (Hong Kong), Veronica Emery (Hong Kong), Jiandyn Collective (Thailand), Jason Lim (Singapore), Pan Lu and Bo Wang (Hong Kong/Netherlands), Arin Rungjang (Thailand), Erika Tan (Singapore), Rodel Tapaya (Philippines), Ting Chaong-Wen (Taiwan), Robert Zhao Renhui (Singapore) and Zheng Mahler (Hong Kong). The exhibition will take place simultaneously across the campuses of EMASI Nam Long (District 7) and EMASI Van Phuc (Thu Duc City) from March to July 2024.

For many of us, the taste of chocolate evokes childhood memories, sweetness, and the warmth of family. In Asia, chocolates were often brought back from visits to faraway countries and received as gifts with excitement and pleasure.

Today, chocolate is no longer considered an “exotic” luxury item. In addition to Western brands, many Asian countries have developed their own chocolate industries, incorporating flavors and ingredients that resonate with Asian palates. However, what lies behind the chocolate bars that we see daily on supermarket shelves remains, for many, unknown territory.

Is cocoa produced in Asia? Why has chocolate been absent for so long from the Asian culinary landscape, and can local producers meet today’s growing demand? Who are the farmers cultivating cocoa in the region, and what are the challenges they face when asked to scale up production in a sustainable way?

Conceived as a collective and creative research project, this exhibition invites us to delve into these issues, aiming to shed light on the many untold stories of Asian cocoa and chocolate through an array of embodied, emotional, imaginative, and conceptual artistic expressions. From the cocoa tree’s unique characteristics and its colonial history to the ecological challenges surrounding its current production and the intricate processes involved in turning beans into chocolate, the artistic diversity showcased in this exhibition unveils the extensive breadth, potential, and complexity of what is often perceived merely as a foreign delicacy.

Exhibition “Happy Ever After”

06 Jan – 20 Mar 2024
Floor 2, Mipec Long Bien
No. 2 Long Biên 2, Ngọc Lâm, Long Biên, Hà Nội

Wishing hundred years of happiness for newlyweds on their wedding day expresses Vietnamese people’s sincere desire for a lifetime of joy and fullfillment. What is happiness? What does it take to make us happy? These seemingly simple questions are hard to answer, since each person’s idea of happiness is conditioned by a different life journey.

Through the practice of art using traditional lacquer materials and experiments with different modern materials such as metals and synthetics, the limits of materials expand to change forms and spatial dimensions. These new techniques offer a visually rich experience, creating new emotional expressions and artistic concepts.

In this exhibition, I continue to develop the art project “A Thousand Portraits of Mattresses”, a fusion of sculpture and painting that I’ve been pursuing for the past 10 years and will continue to do so in the future. Displaying mattress artworks alongside traditional paintings of people, landscapes, and objects, I want to invite reflections of life and its essence, of past and present, of time and space, while embracing dreams and realities that humans bear.

The exhibition is not my definition of happiness but merely my observations and reflections of life through the lines, forms, and colors. It is my own searching as an artist of the essence of art, of beauty and grit, of happiness and suffering, and ultimately, the meaning of life.

Exhibition “The Middle Land”
 

Opening: 05 pm, Tues 30 Jan 2024
Exhibition: 09:30 am – 05 pm, 30 Jan – 20 Apr 2024
Artigin Art Space – Lotte Mall Westlake Office Lobby
683 Lac Long Quan, Tay Ho, Hanoi

A territory residing “in the middle.” Amidst the past, amidst the future. Between the edges of the tangible and the boundless. What we once understood about the contemporary realm now materializes as sudden occurrences, seemingly sensible yet rich in anomalies. A familiar obsession, seemingly empty and lacking in information.

This is where entities and events are no longer confined by nothingness, time, gradually evolving into mutated, distorted beings—creatures of the dream realm. They soar, transform, challenge each other.
They play, dance, conspire, tear each other apart in that condensed timeframe. They are mischievous, carefree in a manner that mocks the ordinary. They are unbound.
They are indifferent, attempting to cling to the old ego eroded and hollowed out by “The Middle Land”
What are they?
They are creatures from the restricted border area, flying like “chaotic locusts” through the spacetime of Lê Đăng Ninh.
They constitute an exhilarating virtual world filled with creatures, events that surpass the common sense of Đinh Quang Hải.
They embody the absurdly carefree, inexplicably innocent, and intriguingly mischievous narratives of Phạm Thái Bình within the highland stories.
They embody the silent, abundant yet wordless nature of Nguyễn Ngọc Liêm. Spacious, vast, gentle yet haunting. Familiar yet full of unfamiliar insecurities.

Theatre “Cinderella”

08 pm, 01, 02 & 08, 09 Mar 2024
Complex 01
No. 29, lane 31, alley 167 Tây Sơn, Quang Trung, Đống Đa, Hà Nội
07:30 pm, 16 Mar & 06:30 pm, 17 Mar 2024
ATH – Drama and Arts Space
No. 102 alley 47 Quảng Khánh, Quảng An, Tây Hồ, Hà Nội

A young woman cannot understand the last words of her mother, but didn’t ask her to repeat them. After her mother passed, she’s obsessed with these words: “If you always think of me and never forget me for more than 5 minutes, I’ll always be here.” Joël Pommerat has started with this grief and misunderstanding to retell a very old and familiar fairy tale in a modern way.
​
Cinderella story resembles our current reality – when everyone is torn between consumption habits and materialism, as values of ethics and humanity are slowly fading away. This play criticizes the individualist lifestyles by portraying several characters who are very selfish and always rely on lies, therefore leading uncomfortable and stuffy lives.
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Throughout the play, actors and actresses will continue to move in between several different spaces. Inspired by street theater, Quentin wants Cinderella to be a play made for everybody, where audiences can also join in the story along with the actors

Ticket

– Ticket price: 250,000 VNĐ/one person
– Early bird ticket is 200,000 VNĐ if you purchase before 23/2/2024
– Student ticket is 200,000 VNĐ
– Group ticket is 150,000 VNĐ/person, if you have a group of 5 or more people

Playwright:

Joël Pommerat is a very important writer in the history of French theater. He has written and directed more than 20 plays in his lifetime. In 1990, he established a professional theater group to practise and perform plays that he composed. “Le Monde” magazine gave him a lot of praises, saying he’s “an excellent artist who, along with his theater group Louis Brouillard created many beautiful works of art. In Pommerat’s plays, words, light and sounds all communicate to build up an expression of the world.”

Director:

Quentin graduated from the Professional Drama School in France in 2006. He then led his artistic career as a stage director in France, Morocco, Italy, and Vietnam. In 2013, he founded ATH – Drama and Arts Space where he now teaches acting. All of his theater productions express his artistic ideology: Culture must offer to people, to each individual without discrimination, a tool for observation, reflection, and an opportunity to take part in the development of the community of which they are part of.

Performance “Shadow of the Puppets”

08 pm, Sun 17 Mar 2024
Vietnam National Dramatic Theatre
No. 1 Tràng Tiền, Phan Chu Trinh, Hoàn Kiếm, Hà Nội

The play Shadow of the Puppets is a profound meditation on family pain, same-sex love and the struggle to live as one’s true self. In each of us, there are always hidden corners, deep secrets that we always keep hidden. The tragic story of an unhappy family opens up human problems throughout society…

The performance uses puppets and puppetry, including the beautiful art of ‘shadow puppetry’. Puppets and people have blended together on stage, being the character’s body and soul, the light and dark sides, the pain and joy being released.

The performance is full of novelty in its expression. From the content to the staging, ‘Shadow of the Puppets’ has a contemporary breath, breaking all traditional theatre rules. For nearly 120 minutes, the performance leads viewers through life’s stages, back to the past, to illuminate the present through beautiful visual displays and physical dances that are sometimes lyrical and profound, sometimes turbulent and explosive. According to psychological changes and knots, the dramatic conflict is pushed to a climax and resolved, where problems are challenging to describe and reveal through dialogue.

“Living true to yourself” – the message of the play “Shadow of the Puppets” not only explores the story of a community and gender issues in modern society but also addresses human issues, carrying great humanistic value.

Author: Vu Hoang Hoa, currently lives in Sydney and is the author and art critic. The play Shadow of the Puppets is on the nomination list for the 2023 Patrick White Award for scripts, organized annually by Sydney Theatre (Australia).
Director: Meritorious Artist Ta Tuan Minh (Vietnam National Dramatic Theatre) won the 2020 Theatre Festival Outstanding Director Award for the play ‘The Good Man of House No. 5’.
Choreographer: Nguyen Duy Thanh
Musician: Nguyen Quoc Hoang Anh (experimental sound, founder and artistic director of Len Ngan)
Stage Designer: Ha Nguyen Long (Director of XPlusX Studio)
Puppet Director : Le Chi Kien
Puppet Designer: Nguyen Xuan Long (Thang Long Puppet Theater)
Artistic Director: Nguyen Xuan Bac, Director of the Vietnam National Dramatic Theatre

Exhibition “The Attention Deficit”

Opening: 06 pm – 09 pm, Fri 01 Mar 2024
Exhibition: 12 pm – 10 pm, Tues – Sun, 01 Mar – 14 Apr 2024
Ô Cocktail & Art Bar
292/15 Điện Biên Phủ, Ward 17, district Bình Thạnh, HCMC

Ô Art Bar is pleased to present the solo show “The Attention Deficit” – an unprecedented fusion of contemporary art and the art of mixology, discreetly nestled in the heart of Saigon. Russian artist Ivan Shevnesky has lived in Ho Chi Minh for more than 8 years, bringing forth a series of colorful paintings derived from his inner self, personal experiences, and journeys.

The state of attention represents the constant psychological evolution of humans. In an era where external factors increasingly cause distractions, paying attention becomes more complex and sophisticated. These factors manifest as multi-sensory information that we must continuously process, creating chaos in every aspect of life. Consequently, attention becomes a luxury and a desire in certain situations, evolving into syndromes that people proudly regard as innovations. Drawing parallels between internal and external chaos, Ivan conveys his observations on canvas with contemporary brush strokes and colors, rooted in European modern art.

Exhibition “Of Scented Reverie”

Opening: 06:30 pm, Fri 01 Mar 2024
Exhibition: 09:00 am – 08:00 pm, 02 – 31 Mar 2024
Annam Gallery
371/4 Hai Bà Trưng, Võ Thị Sáu ward, D.3, HCMC
Entrance fee: 70.000VNĐ/person

Annam Gallery and Lân Tinh Foundation cordially invite the audience to explore the retrospective exhibition of the late artist Tú Duyên (1915-2012) – “Of Scented Reverie”. The exhibition showcases 18 artworks, including creations on silk alongside a series of paintings employing the renowned “Thủ Ấn Họa” technique (hand-stamped print) of the late artist Tú Duyên.

Tú Duyên (1915-2012) born Nguyễn Văn Duyến, is widely recognised under the pseudonym Tứ Duyên, derived from a phonetic adaptation of his name juxtaposed with that of his close friend – Đỗ Văn Tư. Despite this, his artwork collectors often referred to him as Tú Duyên.

Raised in a Confucian family in the artistic enclave of Bát Tràng, Bắc Ninh, Tú Duyên’s upbringing profoundly influenced his artistic sensibilities and unique creative style. Between 1935 and 1938, he passed the entrance exam and attended preparatory classes at l’École des Beaux-Arts de l’Indochine (Indochinese College of Fine Arts). However, in 1939, he had to discontinue his studies and relocated with his family to Saigon. A pivotal moment in Tú Duyên’s career came in 1942 when he innovated “Thủ Ấn Họa” technique (hand-stamped print), an adaptation of traditional Vietnamese woodblock printing, distinguished by its function and highly artistic sophistication.

In 1950, Tú Duyên’s “Thủ Ấn Họa” artworks attained remarkable refinement and intricacy. His first solo exhibition of this series in March 1953 at the Saigon Opera House marked a significant milestone in the recognition of his artistry. In 1955, he received the top prize at the Southern Art Awards for his “Thủ Ấn Họa” portrayal of historical figure Trần Bình Trọng, titled “Would rather be a devil of the South (than be a king of the North).” Notably, his 18th solo exhibition of “Thủ Ấn Họa” paintings took place at Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Museum in late 1996. In 1997, he was awarded a medal from Vietnam Fine Arts Association, and then the medal for the Cause of Vietnamese Literature and Arts from Vietnam Union of Literature and Arts Association in 1999.

Exhibition “The Outlandish Landscape”

09 am – 06 pm, Mon – Sat 03 – 31 Mar 2024
Wiking Salon
First floor – Centec building
72 Nguyễn Thị Minh Khai, Ward 6, District 3, HCMC

The red chair symbolizes societal remnants, present realities, and potential futures. It embodies the artist’s personal perspective and diverse viewpoints, guiding us through landscapes from nature to new territories. The experience is both individual and collective, local and global, encountering historical milestones and questioning societal functioning.

The color red acts as a magnetic force in Southeast Asian street culture, reflecting a working-class identity. As a plastic object in a natural setting, the red chair raises concerns about human exploitation of ecosystems and societal dullness due to industrialization.

The red chair navigates diverse spatial dimensions through time gates, connecting childhood memories and a passion for innovation. It serves as an intersection of hometown imagery and the desire for mystical discoveries.

Solo showcase “Half a Day Continues”
 

Opening: 06 pm – 08 pm, Thurs 29 Feb 2024
Exhibition: 29 Feb – 29 Mar 2024
1/2 Gallery – Cù Rú Bar
No. 2 Phạm Hồng Thái, Ward 10, Đà Lạt

*continue writing my thoughts about home, about real place/contemplation that my own layers can rely on. In this exhibition, I go downstream to my hometown, both familiar and strange. Perhaps the land has changed, now there are only blurred traces in my memory or I myself am no longer the same. I couldn’t know.
In the sunset light
Black sun, orange flame, green grass, brown soil, yellow corn kernel, hand, ashes red charcoal…
Reflective shadow
ashes red charcoal, hand, yellow corn kernels, brown soil, green grass. orange flame, black sun…
A feeling sometimes comes sometimes doesn’t*
(Ngô Đình Bảo Châu)

Exhibition “MOSAICO. Italian Code of a Timeless Art”

Opening: 04:30 pm, Thurs 07 Mar 2024
Exhibition: 08:30 am – 05:30 pm, 08 Mar – 07 Apr 2024
Vietnam Museum of Ethnology
Nguyễn Văn Huyên, Quan Hoa, Cầu Giấy, Hà Nội

The Asian tour of the exhibition “MOSAICO. Italian code of a timeless art” starts from Vietnam! Hanoi will indeed be the first city in Asia to host the multimedia exhibition dedicated to Italian mosaics, conceived and realised by Magister Art and promoted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the Embassy of Italy in Hanoi.

The exhibition itinerary is conceived as a 2000-year long journey to discover the images, symbols, techniques and materials of some of the most famous and iconic Italian mosaics. Through an immersive multimedia experience, the visitor will be able to admire, along a route in stages, the most evocative mosaics of Rome, Pompeii, Aquileia, Ravenna, Palermo/Monreale, Piazza Armerina and Baia.

Leisure
 

Opening: 06:30 pm – 08:30 pm, Sat 16 Mar 2024
Exhibition: 18 Mar – 06 Apr 2024
Vin Gallery
35/8 Nguyễn Văn Đậu, Ward 6, Bình Thạnh, HCMC

Vin Gallery is pleased to present “thư nhàn | leisure”, a solo exhibition by Le Phi Long, which spans from 2020 to the present. This exhibition features personal works crafted in acrylic on canvas, pine wood, and paper, characterized by the use of the lapis lazuli color mixed with metal leaves. It extends the “Đông Dương Lãng Du” project that began in 2016, drawing on both the historical and contemporary efforts of the Society of Foreign Missions of Paris in the East, as well as Long’s own inspirations and Catholic faith. The pieces explore the concept of leisure, representing relaxation and peace of mind—valuable assets in the current religious and rapidly shifting cultural context.

In the “thư nhàn | leisure” collection, Long simplifies his artistic form to delve into the meanings behind lapis lazuli and the use of metal, incorporating his personal spiritual experiences. Drawing inspiration from Christianity and his understanding of energy, he emphasizes the process of belief’s role in shaping matter. This collection, refined through exhibitions from France to Vietnam since 2020, starts with perfecting the notion of “background attitudes” in his works. Long invites viewers to immerse in a sensation of relaxation, akin to lying on grass in a pine forest and daydreaming under the blue sky, thereby expanding their geographical horizons and reconnecting with their body and mind. “thư nhàn | leisure” marks a significant moment in Long’s artistic journey, reflecting his deep connection with life’s fundamental elements and his exploration of survival in an ever-evolving world.

’Untitled (7 Events)'
 

Opening: 06 pm – 08 pm, Sat 09 Mar 2024
Exhibition: 10 am – 07 pm, Tues – Sat, 12 Mar – 04 May 2024
Galerie Quynh
118 Nguyễn Văn Thủ, Đa Kao, D.1, HCMC

Galerie Quynh is excited to announce the opening of Untitled (7 Events) – a major solo exhibition by Hanoi-based artist Pham Minh Hieu. Presenting work developed over the past 10 years, the exhibition reflects the core ideas that represent the artist’s practice. An exhibition of exhibitions, Untitled (7 Events) has theoretical underpinnings in speculative realism¹ and new materialism². Pham has created imaginative ‘total installations’ that immerse spectators in an aesthetic experience. This way of making allows for divergence where different disciplines and genres intertwine, their boundaries fraying and transforming.

Pham Minh Hieu (born 1996, Hanoi) holds a BA with Honors in Art Practice from Stanford University. His interdisciplinary, collaborative practice is informed by creative thinkers in fields spanning philosophy, physics, technology and anthropology. Pham often traverses various modes of making from artificial intelligence, nanofabrication, and additive manufacturing to traditional crafts like glassworking, son mai (lacquer), and kham trai (pearl inlay) to create things at their fundamentals. He installs his work into dwellings he calls ‘total installations,’ where things are quested to speculate reality as they gather and unfold across scales.

Notable exhibitions include Fractured Times, The Outpost, Hanoi, Vietnam; Pham Minh Hieu: Nhu the la (Quasi), AGOhub, Hanoi, Vietnam; and O day & Bay gio (Here & Now), 93 Dinh Tien Hoang, Hanoi, Vietnam. In 2021, Pham was the recipient of the John Shively Fowler Award in Photography at Stanford University. He is based in Hanoi.

Strata 

09:30 am – 06 pm, 10 – 31 Mar 2024
Work Room Four
31/25 Alley 67 Tô Ngọc Vân Str., Quảng An Ward, Tây Hồ district, Hà Nội

Strata is a pioneering display of a new medium by the prolific Hanoian printer Phạm Khắc Quang. An innovative practitioner in the world of print Quang’s work has consistently pushed past the traditional, and since 2015 his focus has been on the development of novel print processes and has seen him create and design multiple new printing techniques to extend the medium beyond conventional limitation.

Born in 1975 in Hải Dương, a province in the Red River Delta of northern Vietnam. Quang graduated with a specialism in graphic art from the Vietnam University of Fine Arts in 2003. Combining his printing practice underpinned by his knowledge as a graphic artist, Quang has perfected his wood-cut printing methods and developed innovative methods and processes allowing him to position the medium in contemporary art practice. He is celebrated as one of the best artisans in his field and has made his mark as a contemporary artist.

His work has been exhibited locally and internationally in a variety of solo shows and group exhibitions including “In Vitra+” – Manzi Art Space, Hanoi – 2019 “Shape of Round” – Goethe-Institut, Hanoi – 2016; “A Present Retrospective” – Work Room Four, Hanoi – 2017; “Printmaking Dialogue” – Vietnam Fine Art Museum ; ‘Printmaking Dialogue’ (2014 group exhibition) at Verviers Art Museum in Belgium; and ‘Breath’ (2013 solo exhibition) at Images Festival in Aarhus and ‘Printmaking Biennale’ (2013 group exhibition) in Guanlan. His artworks are in the collection of the Vietnam Museum of Fine Art.

Exhibition “Rising Artists of TomuraLee”
 

Opening: 05 pm, Wed 13 Mar 2024
Exhibition: 09:30 am – 06:30 pm, Tues – Sun 13 Mar – 14 Apr 2024
TomuraLee Gallery
No. 24, đường số 1, An Khánh, Thủ Đức, HCMC

TomuraLee kicked off the Giap Thin new year with a new theme, we want to ​​​​introduce Vietnamese young artists to everyone with the “Rising Artists of TomuraLee 1st” exhibition.

Through this recruiting exhibition, TomuraLee hopes to become a bridge between artists and collectors and the art-loving community, bringing artists and their works closer to art-loving audiences. Inspired by the true story of each artist’s life and themself, shown through vivid paintings and creative ideas, the collection includes 30 works, “Tet at the Studio”, “Talk with Being”, “Overflow”, “Reflection” to “Memory Returns”, and “Victory”,… will create a colorful artistic experience for everyone visiting the exhibition.

The artists in this exhibition were carefully selected based on comments from experienced artist Le Thiet Cuong. Each artist has their own style, bring deep thoughts and ideas about himself and life, promising to bring diverse and unique works that will satisfy loveving art soul.

There are 6 promising faces in “Rising Artists of TomuraLee 1st” Exhibition: Artist Le Thanh Binh – Artist Tran Cuong – Artist Nguyen Duc Duy – Artist Nguyen Viet Phuong – Artist Bui Tien – Artist Duong Thuy

With the desire to bring Vietnamese artworks closer to the world audience, TomuraLee will try every year to implement enlist programs to bring promising and talented young faces from all over Vietnam. TomuraLee looks forward to receiving support from you, collectors and art lovers everywhere.