date
3 March 2017
closed
location
hồ chí minh
program
+1 contemporary project
artists
about
I cryfor skylines which do not have flying people cry again for flying people who do not have skylines. – Trần Dần, 1987
Inspired by the boundless creativity and fierce spirit of Trần Dần – a prominent figure in Vietnamese literature – and his desire for creative freedom, the young artists of Nhà Sàn Collective started the serial art program ‘Skylines with flying people’ (hereafter SKYLINES). In its 3 rd edition, the program was realized in the form of 11 sub-art projects, 6 solo, duo and group exhibitions and a seminar series with the participation of both local and international scholars, which crisscrossed Hà Nội’s landscape in various locations from the second half of 2016 to January 2017.
If SKYLINES 1 (2010), held in London, was perceived as Nhà Sàn Collective’s attempt at continuing the poet’s legacy, then SKYLINES 2 (2012) was launched at a critical time, out of the need for a working space from a group of outcast artists who were nurtured by Nhà Sàn Studio – one of North Việt Nam’s first and most important artist-run initiatives which was forced to close down in 2010. By transforming the garden area of the Japan Foundation in Hà Nội into a mega artist studio, SKYLINE 2 followed the model of a pop-up art laboratory, where a temporary creative space focusing on public interaction was formed, and where the artists’ working process and experimentation were carried out in front of the public, with the public.
With SKYLINES 3 (2014-2017), territories, geographical limits and a general enquiry into the nature and role of practicing art in Việt Nam continue to be the topics of interest for the participating artists. Flying out of their comfort zones and into terra incognita, the artists began their journeys of exploration, through which a contemporary map of Việt Nam through the lens of a group of artists who grew up after Đổi Mới was sketched out. Whether it is a journey of self-reflection, or one that deals with boarder matters regarding the country’s contested history, each artist’s journey and project in SKYLINES 3 has continued to question existing predominant socio-political discourses, and shed light on alternative geographic narratives, from which issues of migration, exploitation of humans and nature, urbanization etc. are opened up and discussed.
Forming a part of SKYLINES 3, the group exhibition by Nguyễn Trần Nam, Nguyễn Ban Ga and Appendix group now travels to and is introduced at Địa Project in Hồ Chí Minh City. The artists (re)imagine Việt Nam as a geographical body with all its fragmentations and conflicts, existing in between while at the same time trespassing and cross-pollinating borders of times, spaces and narratives.
Location: Saigon Domaine, Ground Floor, 1057 Binh Quoi, Ward 29, Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City
About the artists
Phụ Lục (The Appendix)
Founded in 2010 by six artists, the Hà Nội-based performance art group Phụ Lục is currently made up of four core members: Nguyễn Huy An, Vũ Đức Toàn, Nguyễn Song and Ngô Thành Bắc.
Using allegorical everyday objects as props, the group performs in a durational, repetitive and at times nonsensical manner in abstractly staged settings, in order to evoke social issues or address each member’s personal concerns. Phụ Lục has participated in various local and international performance art events such as Skylines with Flying People 2 in Hà Nội and performance art festivals in Korea and Singapore.
Nguyễn Trần Nam
Born in 1979, Nguyền Trần Nam is one of the second-wave contemporary artists in Hà Nội closely associated with Nhà Sàn Collective. Since graduating from the Việt Nam University of Fine Arts in 2003, Trần Nam has been producing a diverse body of multimedia work, which takes inspiration from his own experience coming from a working-class family, growing up in the countryside of Hưng Yên province and later migrating to the city to study painting. At times dark and at others playful and sarcastic, his work makes visible both past and present-day social, political and historical issues in Việt Nam, while highlighting individual tales of human relationships among people of different social groups.
Exhibitions of his work include Come to [what] end? (Sàn Art, HCMC, 2015), The Broken Chapters (Manzi Art Space, Hà Nội, 2014), Skylines With Flying People 2 (Japan Foundation, Hà Nội, 2012), Hinterlan d (Luggage Store Gallery, San Francisco, USA, 2012), Năm năm (Hà Nội, 2012), Gap (Nhà Sàn Studio, Hà Nội, 2010), Indefinitely (Ryllega Gallery, Hà Nội, 2008) etc.
Nguyễn Ban Ga
Born in 1979, Nguyễn Ban Ga studied at the Việt Nam University of Fine Arts and is now living and working in Hà Nội. Ban Ga is one of the founders of Hanoi Link – a collective of young video artists, and an active member of Nhà Sàn Collective. Ban Ga also works at Hà Nội DOCLAB – Centre of Documentary and Experimental film located at the Goethe Institut, where he teaches short courses on filmmaking.
Although video art is his primary medium, Ban Ga also works with painting and performance art to express his perspective on issues that contemporary Vietnamese society is facing. His current work explores the impact of political ideology and attempts to make sense of the influences that have been imposed on Việt Nam both organically as a result of occurrence like migration and globalisation and deliberately by policy making and political decisions.
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SKYLINES 3 is inaugurated by Nhà Sàn Collective, a non-profit artist-run art space based in Hà Nội promoting contemporary and experimental creative practices.
http://swfp3.org/
https://www.facebook.com/SkylinesWithFlyingPeople3
Email: info@swfp3.org
Tel: + 84 (0) 975549681