A group exhibition
Don’t Call It Art
Curator: Đỗ Tường Linh | Artist: Nguyễn Minh Thành, Nguyễn Quang Huy, Trương Tân | Duration: 19/11/2022 - 31/12/2022
Featuring artwork from the archives of Veronika Radulovic
Preface
This introduction is primarily composed of excerpts from Annette Bhagwati’s essay ‘Don't Call It Art! Contemporary Art in Vietnam 1993-1999’, all revisited and rearranged to suit the purpose of the exhibition.
The exhibited archive revolves around the work of three artists: Trương Tân, Nguyễn Minh Thành and Nguyễn Quang Huy - all widely considered to be pioneers of contemporary art in Vietnam. Their unconventional drawings and paintings, their art performances and installations - the first ever in Vietnam - have made them protagonists of an independent and young art scene that emerged in Hanoi in the early 1990s. Not only has their work found its way into the collections of leading museums such as National Gallery and SAM Singapore, Guggenheim New York or Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, but among the younger generation of artists they have also become almost mythical figures who, unfazed by oppression, dared to rebel - and thus opened the mind to new possibilities.
Since commercial galleries of the early 1990s in Hanoi or Saigon did not engage with independent and experimental artists, there were actually only very few places where artists could “publicly” show their work. These obviously had to be venues beyond the government’s grasp - such as, for example, embassies or Salon Natasha (at the time the only private venue for exhibitions in Hanoi), the private homes of foreign collectors or embassy employees or simply some place tucked away in the countryside. Only in 1998-1999, with the arrival and increasing involvement of foreign cultural institutions such as the Goethe Institute, did the exhibition situation slowly start to improve.
Trương Tân, Nguyễn Minh Thành and Nguyễn Quang Huy were among the first artists in the 1990s Đổi Mới climate who wanted to explore new freedoms and pursue their own artistic path. They sought aesthetic expressions that would go far beyond those promoted and permitted at the state’s art academies. The tangible spontaneity, shrewdness and boldness of their art was matched by their materials and working methods. They mainly used traditional Vietnamese paper - inexpensive, inconspicuous and easy to transport - brushes and watercolours, hardly anything more. They did not work in a large studio either - a small flat they shared on Hàng Chuối street in Hanoi’s Old Quarter was all they needed for their heretic experiments.
Yet despite their resounding reputation, most of their actual work largely remains unknown, except for a few iconic pieces and later works. The systematic documentation and conservation of these artefacts of Vietnamese art history - including photographs, advertisements, newspaper cut-outs, performance videos of various lengths, drawings and paintings of every kind, snapshots encapsulating the zeitgeist of this era - owes its enduring preservation to Veronika Radulovic, a German artist who lived in Hanoi from 1993 to 2005 and was, at the time, an integral part of this young art scene. Comprising almost 1000 works and photographs, Veronika Radulovic’s archive is the largest collection of this type worldwide and a unique testament to these years of change.
