Contemporary Vietnamese art in Berlin gallery
March 17, 2010
"Kunstszene Vietnam", or "Art Scene Viet Nam", is the first exhibition of contemporary Vietnamese art to take place in Germany in over a decade.
It has two curators – the German artist Veronika Radulovic, who has lived and worked in Hanoi for years, and Barbara Barsch, who runs the ifa Gallery Berlin.
Barsch explained why "Kunstszene Vietnam" was so special: "Contemporary art from Vietnam is not particularly well-known in Germany. Of course, individual artists sometimes participate in the Venice Biennale. However, we wanted to point out there is a full and intact art scene in Vietnam."
11 artists from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City
Works by 11 artists – mainly from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City – have been presented in the exhibition. Ranging from painting, sculpture and video installations to performance art, the works deal with a variety of social phenomena, such as corruption, housing, or the situation of homosexuals in Vietnam.
The 50-year old former abstract painter Tran Luong has moved towards performance art in public spaces. One video shows him in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square brushing his teeth and gums.
In the video, Tran explains that at one point he suddenly realized how negative Mao’s leadership of China had been and felt the urge to cleanse himself from its impact.
Electronic media in art is a new development
As curator Barbara Barsch pointed out, the use of electronic media in art is a recent development: "Vietnamese universities and academies only teach traditional techniques, such as painting and visual arts. When it comes to video, the artists are autodidacts. They look at what others are creating in this field and then work on their own."
The most expressive piece in the exhibition is an installation by Dinh Q Le. The artist fled Vietnam in the 1980s and subsequently studied in the United States. Since returning to his home country, he has become an important artistic link between the West and Vietnam.
Devastating consequences of chemical weapons
In his work, Dinh Q Le examines the devastating consequences of the use of chemical weapons during the Vietnam War. Today, a large number of children continue to be born with serious disabilities and this phenomenon can be traced back to poisonous substances that have entered the food chain.
In his installation "Damaged Gene", Dingh Q Le shows little plastic dolls with deformed bodies, pacifiers with two teats, and children's clothes with two collars, bearing the logos of the companies that produced Agent Orange.
Dinh Q Le says he does not want to scare off the viewers immediately. At first, they are supposed to like the dolls and children's clothes but they gradually get a shock as they understand what they are watching.
"Kunstszene Vietnam" is the first exhibition in a new series called "connect", which presents art from regions or countries that are not in the main international spotlight. India is next up on the agenda.
Author: Thomas Voelkner
Editor: Anne Thomas