- Đỗ Tường Linh
Artists: Lê Đình Chung, Daphné Nan Le Sergent, Prune Phi, Xavier Robles de Medina, Arlette Quỳnh-Anh Trần
Bảy nổi ba chìm – Seven up Three down pays homage to Hàm Nghi (1871–1944), an Annamese (modern-day Vietnamese) emperor who became the country’s first modern artist while in exile in Algeria. While studying painting under Marius Reynaud and sculpture under Auguste Rodin, Hàm Nghi also formed a friendship with the artist Paul Gauguin. His artistic contributions have long been overlooked in mainstream art history, only recently gaining recognition through the efforts of his fifth-generation descendant, art historian Amandine Dabat. The exhibition weaves together the works of Lê Đình Chung (b. 1990, Lâm Đồng), Daphné Nan Le Sergent (b. 1975, Seoul), Prune Phi (b. 1991, Paris), Xavier Robles de Medina (b. 1990, Paramaribo), and Arlette Quỳnh-Anh Trần (b. 1987, East Germany), all of whom traverse and echo hidden histories to reinterpret, reimagine, and breathe life into both the present and the future.
This exhibition is held in a year that carries profound historical weight: a century since the founding of the École des Beaux-Arts de l’Indochine in Hanoi, fifty years after the end of the Vietnam-US War, and half a century after Suriname gained independence from Dutch colonial rule. Chung’s restaged paintings and sculptures of Hàm Nghi subtly reveal the suppressed desire for self-determination through artistic liberation. In contrast, Robles de Medina’s restaged painting of Dutch Queen Wilhelmina’s removal powerfully symbolizes a transition of authority, immortalized through art. Meanwhile, Trần, Le Sergent, and Phi guide us on explorations of diverse themes: from the US state-sponsored 1960 exhibition Art and Archaeology of Vietnam, which toured the US during the Vietnam War; to the impact of semiconductor production in East Asia on the development of cameras, digital tablets, and our understanding of the world; to the revival of rice cultivation as the “white gold” of the Camargue region, made possible by the labor of 20,000 Vietnamese workers brought to Southern France during World War II.
The opening features a performance by exhibiting artist Prune Phi in collaboration with culinary artist Bếp Nhỏ (Petit Kitchen), merging art with the sensorial poetry of taste and memory.
Support for the exhibition is provided by Vietnam Art Collection (VAC).
