ROOTS & WORLDS – EXHIBITION IN HO CHI MINH CITY
- Opening 13.07.2024, 16:00-18:00
- Exhibition 13-27.07.2024, 8:00-18:00
- Artist talk 14.07.2024, 14:00 – 16:00
- Institute of Cultural Exchange with France (IDECAF) Trao đổi Văn hóa với Pháp IDECAF, 31 Thai Van Lung, Ben Nghe Ward, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City
- Free entrance
THIS PROGRAMME IS SUPPORTED BY THE BRITISH COUNCIL AS PART OF THE UK/VIET NAM SEASON 2023
Roots & Worlds* exhibition presents six photographic series produced by emerging Vietnamese photographers in the alternative school for photography co-led by Matca and IC Visual Lab, envisioned as an education model where collaboration takes centre stage. From September to November 2023, the cohort of Nguyen Huu Thien Truong, Ha Huyen Trang, Nguyen Vo Bao Han, Nguyen Le Tuan Kiet, Dan Tran and Tran Quynh Nhi received financial and artistic support to develop their project following the theme of ecological encounters.
For three months, the participants and mentoring team have closely worked together in group and individual sessions, touching on multiple aspects of visual storytelling from theory to practice. We have explored a range of photographic methods, including documenting and staging, and incorporating other media like text and archival images. Although each project is credited to an individual author, we regard this whole endeavor as a collective effort, built upon numerous online and in-person meet-ups where doubts and questions unfolded.
Using ecological encounters as the departure point, each participant has since followed unexpected paths, weaving together the personal and political, local and global, fact and fiction. Their projects are set in different locales across Vietnam and beyond, covering a myriad of topics.
Having grown up next to his family’s longan garden, Nguyen Huu Thien Truong has a special affinity for this fruit-bearing tree, one that grows from the dragon’s eye according to local legends. Following remaining longan farmers in his hometown of Vinh Long in the Mekong Delta, this series explores the connection between people, their gardens and the river in the face of economic pressure and climate change.
Occasionally sighted in grocery stores or on a small corner altar in a restaurant, bananas act as reminders of home for Ha Huyen Trang, who now lives in Wollongong, Australia. They evoke cherished memories of family life while at the same time highlighting distance and loss.
Revolving around maternal kinship, tales about coastal rocks and the ever-transforming seascape of Nha Trang Bay, Nguyen Vo Bao Han’s work is an introspective interpretation of ephemeral stories that have shaped her soul.
In Quy Nhon, known as “paradise by the sea”, Nguyen Le Tuan Kiet documents life along the shore and the residents’ age-old relationships with the sea, and how they exist next to spectacular vistas of metropolitan living advertised on billboards across the city.
Flowers are not simply ornamental, they also provide a spiritual function, allowing the living to pay a symbolic visit to the dead. Tracing his own loss, Dan Tran captures how flowers are used as expressions of grief and remembrance in private and public spaces in Ho Chi Minh City and Singapore, where he currently lives.
In Tran Quynh Nhi’s work, the orchid garden in her home in Quang Ninh acts as the backdrop for a story of inner conflicts and tension between personal freedom and familial bonds. She combines collaborative portraits of her mom with screenshots of text messages – the only tool that keeps them connected while she wanders far from home.
Seeing the urgency of supporting independent, socially-conscious photographic works, we would like to re-present images, reflections, and conversations from Roots & Worlds in this Ho Chi Minh City exhibition and an upcoming catalogue, after the initial Open Studio at Matca Space for Photography in November 2023.
*The title owes a debt of gratitude to Elizabeth Povinelli’s Routes/Worlds (2022).
ABOUT THE PROGRAMME AND ORGANISERS
Roots & Worlds is an alternative school co-designed and run by ICVL (UK) and Matca (Vietnam) where collaboration takes centre stage. It is intended for early-career Vietnamese image-makers who wish to develop their visual language and produce socially conscious stories. Alongside the mentorship, the program also fosters interdisciplinary engagement by inviting contributions from Vietnamese and international researchers, writers and artists.
Matca is an independent initiative dedicated to opening conversations around photography in Vietnam. Founded and run by photographers since 2016, Matca has evolved across platforms, including but not limited to an online journal, a physical space, and an imprint. Matca is run by Linh Pham and Ha Dao with other contributors.
IC Visual Lab is a non-profit visual arts organisation based in Bristol (UK), working between visual culture and socially engaged practice. We are dedicated to exploring the role of images in today’s world, particularly how photography is used to construct narratives that shape society. Our projects often involve activating archives in order to challenge dominant narratives. IC Visual Lab is run by Alejandro Acín and Ben GJ Thomas.
