VietNamNet Bridge – Two Vietnamese curators and nine artists will be presenting their works at Singapore Biennale 2013 (SB2013) – an international platform established in 2006 to foster artist presentation and discourse in contemporary art - from 26 October 2013 to 16 February 2014.

A work by Tran Tuan.

The Vietnamese representatives at the event include: curators Tran Luong and Nguyen Nhu Huy and artists Lam Hieu Thuan, Le Brothers, Nguyen Huy An, Nguyen Oanh Phi Phi, Nguyen Thi Hoai Tho, Nguyen Trinh Thi, Tran Tuan, Uu Dam Tran Nguyen and Vu Hong Ninh.

Vu Hong Ninh, 31, is a sculptor in Hanoi. Vu seeks to make critical observations about tendencies in human behavior in relation to societal values and modes of operation. Selected exhibition include ‘Boom Boom’, Hue Festival, Vietnam (2010); ‘LimDim’, Stenersen Museum, Oslo, Norway (2009); ‘Recovery’, Saigon Open City Project, Vietnam (2007).

Lam Hieu Thuan, 40, is a documentary photographer who lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. His works touch upon social, cultural and political gaps between the past and the present.

Le Brothers, 38, from Quang Binh, are twin brothers whose work dissect and question the post-war consciousness of North and South Vietnam. Selected projects include ‘The Bridge II’, performance at DMZ Gang Hwa, Korea (2012), ‘Before ‘86’, Cheongju Complex Cultural Center, Korea (2012) and ‘Communicate with me’, Saigon Open City, Vietnam (2006).

Nguyen Huy An, 31, from Hanoi, seeks to make connections between pessimistic psyches of human behavior and the psychology that induces an obsession with memory. Selected exhibitions include ‘Sky Line with Flying People’, Hanoi, Vietnam (2012); ‘LIMDIM’, Oslo, Norway (2009) and “Sneaky Week Festival Performance”, Hanoi, Vietnam (2007).

Nguyen Thi Hoai Tho, 30, from Hanoi, is a founding member of CHAAP collective which features the works of young experimental artists in Hanoi. Central to the artist’s practice is an interrogation of the female body and form in the context of patriarchal societies. Selected exhibitions include ‘Phap Phong’, Goethe Institute, Hanoi (2011).

Nguyen Oanh Phi Phi, 34, a Vietnamese American who lives and works between Vietnam and Madrid and utilizes the medium of Vietnamese lacquer as a painting medium to convey concepts of memory and reflexivity. Phi Phi received her BFA at Parsons School of Design (2002) and a MFA at the University of Madrid Complutense (2012). In 2004, she received a Fullbright Grant to study lacquer painting in Hanoi, Vietnam.

A work by Vu Hong Ninh.

Nguyen Tran Nam, 34, from Hanoi, is a multi-disciplinary artist who explores through his works an interrogation into the human psyche and modes of behavior and interaction. Nguyen’s works often employ humor as a tool to further expound on the reciprocal influence between human and nature. Selected exhibitions include ‘Hinterland’, Luggage Store Gallery, San Francisco (2012); ‘Gap’, Nhasan Studio, Hanoi, Vietnam (2010); ‘Indefinitely’, Ryllega Gallery, Hanoi, Vietnam (2008).

Nguyen Trinh Thi, 40, is a Hanoi-based independent filmmaker and video artist and is the founder and director of DOCLAB, an independent center for documentary film and video art in Hanoi. Her practice is vested in the exploration of memory in order to unveil hidden, displaced or misinterpreted histories as well as an in-depth examination of the position and role of artists in Vietnamese society today. Select exhibitions include Women in Between: Asian Women Artists 1984-2012, Fukuoka Asia Art Museum, Okinawa Prefectural Art Museum, Tochigi Prefecture Art Museum of Fine Arts, Mie Prefectural Art Museum, Japan (2012); The City in Art, Goethe Institute, Hanoi (2010); No Soul for Sale 2, Tate Modern, London (2012).

Tran Tuan, 32, from Hue city, negotiates between present day narratives and the inherited realities of the past in order to engage with concepts of mediation and reconciliation. Select exhibitions include Transformed Cloud, Hue City Commission (2012); Nặng bồng nhẹ tếch, Festival Hue (2010); Dialogue, Goethe Institute, Hanoi (2004).

Born four years before the end of the Vietnam War, Uu Dam Tran Nguyen, 42, studied in Vietnam and later earned his BA and MFA in the USA. Tran Nguyen’s transnational experiences are reflected in his rich body of works including choreographed performance video, sculptures, drawings, sound installations, buttons pins, and world flags painted condoms. Never content with a single theme, Tran Nguyen is a visual spokesman for several contemporary topics from religions to sexuality, power, identity, and the Internet. His works are in several collections in Italy, USA, and Vietnam and have been reviewed in Art Forum, NY Times, LA Times, T.O.N.Y., SGTT, and more.

Hanoi’s artist and curator Tran Luong, 53, graduated from the Hanoi Fine Arts Institute in 1983. Tran Luong was the founder and Director of the Contemporary Art Centre in Hanoi from 2000-2003. He has also participated in numerous local and international exhibitions. These included Flying Circus Project (Singapore 2000), Imagined Workshop: The 2nd Fukuoka Asian Art Triennial (Fukuoka 2002), Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art 2002 at Jump Ship Rat, Busan Biennale (2004) . Tran Luong has participated in a number of workshops including MoMA, East Asian Museum Professionals (New York City & Los Angeles 2001), Visual Art Workshop of Hanoi Artists at MaoKhe (Quang Ninh 2001) and Civitella Ranieri Workshop (Perugia 2001) and has received a number of grants from The Asian Cultural Council, The Ford Foundation and Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts.

A graduate of the Ho Chi Minh City University of Fine Arts, Nguyen Nhu Huy has worked with various mediums from installation art to paintings, photography, video art and public art. He's also is an independent curator, critical writer, and a poet. He has written, translated and published widely on Vietnam Contemporary art, culture, and art theory. Huy often focuses on the ambiguous spaces located in the gap between past and present, public and private, what we see and what we know, what can be spoken about and what can only be shown, etc... His art projects take relational aesthetics as their theoretical and practical departure, always trying to create the platforms where audience and artist, art and everyday life, can encounter each other in many different forms of dialogue.

This year’s Biennale is focused on harnessing the energy of the Southeast Asia region to build a distinctive Asian identity for itself. Through a bold collaborative curatorial model that combines the expertise and specialized knowledge of 27 curators from across Southeast Asia, the total of 82 artists have been identified by the curators, including nine from Vietnam.

T. Van