Poetic Amnesia, Rolex Art Weekend, 3-4 February 2018, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
http://artsweekend.rolexmentorprotege.com/
A beast, a god and a line, Feb 2-10 2018, Dhaka Art Summit, Dhaka, Bangladesh
A beast, a god and a line considers Bengal's position at the core of different geographical networks, reflecting the circulation of people of the Austronesian world to the histories of globalisation beginning in the early 16th century, the exhibition unfolds in several chapters, positioning the materials histories of textiles as a central thread that carries the trace of these exchanges. This exhibition co-produced by Dhaka Art Summit, Para Site, Hong Kong and the Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw and will also tour to TS1 Yangon in 2018.
https://www.dhakaartsummit.org/a-beast-a-god-and-a-line
The Life of Things, 19 Jan - 1 April 2018, Jendela Visual Arts Space, the Esplanade, Singapore
https://www.esplanade.com/festivals-and-series/visual-arts/2018/relics?GenreNames=Visual%20Arts&Start=20180110
Poetic Amnesia, solo exhibition, Dec 13-Dec 24 2017, Nha San Collective, Hanoi, Vietnam
http://www.nhasan.org/
Poetic Amnesia - Artist talk with Phan Thao Nguyen, 12 May 2017
Speaker: Artist Phan Thảo Nguyên
Date: 12 May 2017
Time: 7PM – 9PM
Location: The Factory Contemporary Arts Centre
15 Nguyễn Ư Dĩ, Thảo Điền W., D.2, HCMC
‘Phan’s artistic methodology is akin to a 21st century social scientist, employing anthropological means of observation and categorization, re-shuffling the systems and symbols of culture and society into differing, at times utterly abstract, visual and textual figurations.”
At this artist talk, Phan Thao Nguyen will share with us her unique journey of exploration and creation, looking at historical sources of inspirations and the wide range of artistic media utilized for the realization of ‘Poetic Amnesia’. This talk will also see the launching of the exhibition catalogue, with high-quality printed imagery and curatorial essay by Zoe Butt.
This talk is presented in English and Vietnamese. Entrance is free.
http://factoryartscentre.com/en/event/artist-talk-with-phan-thao-nguyen/
Poetic Amnesia, solo exhibition, 15 April - 2 June, 2017, the Factory contemporary art centre, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Artist: Phan Thảo Nguyên
Curator: Zoe Butt
Exhibition date: 15 April – 2 June 2017
Location: The Factory Contemporary Arts Centre
15 Nguyễn Ư Dĩ, Thảo Điền W., D.2, HCMC, Vietnam
In Phan Thao Nguyen’s first solo exhibition in Vietnam we will see her passion for storytelling take new direction and form. Inspired by particular historical texts – such as the writings of French missionary Alexander de Rhodes as he traveled across Vietnam, or the earliest mythical tales written in the Vietnamese Romanized script by Catechist Bento Thien – Thao Nguyen weaves her own poetry using their memories as her landscape. Figures in watercolor dance across pages; symbols of love and betrayal are transformed into sculpture; while oil paint sketch scenes on x-ray film backings. In ‘Poetic Amnesia’ an imagined world is conjured, a world that may be truth or fiction, a memory re-called or entirely made anew.
http://factoryartscentre.com/en/event/poetic-amnesia/
The Making of an Institution — Artistic Research. Talk by Thao Nguyen Phan (Vietnam), Artist-in-Residence
The Making of an Institution — Artistic Research. Talk by Thao-Nguyen Phan (Vietnam), Artist-in-Residence
March 1 from 7:30 to 9pm
Studio #01-04, Block 37 Malan Road
As part of The Making of an Institution, Artist-in-Residence Thao-Nguyen Phan explores what artistic research means in the context of her practice and how it has been developing over the years. Interweaving past and recent works that engage with the history of Vietnam, she will discuss her interest in educational patterns and the power of narrative in the transmission of knowledge. She will also talk about the projects she developed with Art Labor, a collective she co-founded in 2012.
The talk will take place in the artist’s studio.
This Workshop is part of the public programme of The Making of an Institution.
BIOGRAPHY
Through a combination of painting, video, performance, and installation, Thao-Nguyen Phan (b. 1987, Vietnam) creates provocative artworks focusing on historical events, traditional narratives, and minor gestures that challenge common assumptions and social conventions. Recent exhibitions include Concept Context Contestation, Art and the Collective in South East Asia, Goethe Institut, Hanoi, Vietnam (2016); Haunted Thresholds: Spirituality in Contemporary Southeast Asia, Kunstverein Göttingen, Germany, (2014). Phan is also a member of the collective Art Labor.
https://www.facebook.com/events/1652129215090507/
Artist talk with Joan Jonas and Thao Nguyen Phan12 Feb 2017
Joan Jonas and Phan Thảo Nguyên
Date: 12 February 2017
Time: 4.00PM – 6.00PM
Location: The Factory Contemporary Arts Centre
15 Nguyen U Di, Thao Dien Ward, D.2, HCMC
REVEALING THE ESSENCE OF ARTISTIC MENTORSHIP
A passionate discussion on art between Rolex Mentor Joan Jonas and Protégée Phan Thảo Nguyên to be held at The Factory Contemporary Arts Centre in Vietnam
Internationally acclaimed, pioneering American performance and video artist Joan Jonas will share the stage with visual artist Phan Thảo Nguyên, her protégée in the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, at a lecture and discussion held from 4pm, on 12 February at Ho Chi Minh City’s Factory Contemporary Arts Centre.
As part of the lecture, “Mentorship: Revealing an Artistic Practice”, Jonas will relate her experiences in a career that spans over nearly a half century and reveal her views on society in light of contemporary art. Following the lecture, Phan Thảo Nguyên, herself a multimedia artist from Ho Chi Minh City who uses painting, installation, video and performance to depict historical and contemporary concepts, will discuss her artistic interaction with the legendary Jonas over the past 10 months.
In particular, the event will highlight the creative dialogue between these two artists of different generations and cultures.
The Factory Contemporary Arts Centre is an independent art centre that creates and hosts interdisciplinary contemporary art and cultural activities in order to introduce and expand knowledge of art and cultural trends, both past and present, in Vietnam.
Joan Jonas
Mentor
Described by London’s Guardian newspaper as a “titan of the American avant garde”, the internationally acclaimed, New York-based, performance and video artist Joan Jonas has made an indelible mark on the visual arts over nearly a half century – and continues to do so. Performance opened things up in the art world, says Jonas, whose pioneering works in New York’s late-1960s downtown art scene drew inspiration from a variety of artistic genres and cultures. Trained in art history and sculpture at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and at New York’s Columbia University, where she received an MFA in Sculpture in 1965, she soon abandoned her career as a sculptor and turned to the relatively unexplored area of performance and video, incorporating multimedia and featuring a variety of themes from mythological narratives to mirrors. Beginning in the late 1960s, she performed the groundbreaking Mirror Pieces that uses mirrors as a visual device. This was followed by, among other works, Organic Honey’s Visual Telepathy (1972), which explores women’s shifting roles. In the 1990s, in pieces such as the My New Theater series, Jonas moved away from a dependence on her physical presence. A major retrospective of her work, Light Time Tales, was showcased in 2014-2015 at Milan’s HangarBicocca. Her multimedia installation, They Come to Us Without a Word, evoking an ecologically challenged world, drew huge crowds to the US Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015. A solo exhibition at DHC/Art in Montreal ran from April to September 2016. Winner of numerous honours, including a 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Jonas taught at the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture and was a professor at Stuttgart’s State Academy of Art and Design and for 17 years at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), where she is Professor Emerita in the MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology.
Phan Thảo Nguyên
Protégée
Phan Thảo Nguyên has pushed the boundaries of contemporary art in Vietnam. Through literature, philosophy and daily life, she observes ambiguous issues in social convention, history and tradition. An honours graduate from Singapore’s Lasalle College of the Arts in 2009, four years later Phan Thảo Nguyên received an MFA in Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). Today, in addition to her work as a multimedia artist, she has joined forces with artist Trương Công Tùng and curator Arlette Quỳnh-Anh Trần to form Art Labor. This collective explores cross-disciplinary practices and develops art projects that will benefit the local community. Phan Thảo Nguyên is expanding her “theatrical fields”, including what she calls performance gesture and moving images, under the guidance of pioneering visual artist Joan Jonas whom she considers the “ideal mentor”. Phan Thảo Nguyên has exhibited widely in Southeast Asia.
The Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative is a philanthropic program that was set up in 2002 to make a contribution to global culture. The program seeks out gifted young artists from all over the world and brings them together with artistic masters for a year of creative collaboration in a one-to-one mentoring relationship. In keeping with its tradition of supporting individual excellence, Rolex gives emerging artists time to learn, create and grow.
Over the past decade, Rolex has paired mentors and protégés in dance, film, literature, music, theatre, visual arts and – as of 2012 – architecture. In the decade since it was launched, the mentoring program has evolved into an enriching dialogue between artists of different generations, cultures and disciplines, helping ensure that the world’s artistic heritage is passed on to the next generation.
Residencies OPEN: Art After Dark! 13 Jan 2017, Fri 07:00 PM - 11:00 PM at Gillman Barracks, Singapore
http://ntu.ccasingapore.org/events/residencies-open-art-dark/
Artist in Residency at NTU CCA Singapore, January and March 2017
RESIDENCY PERIOD
3 January – 26 January 2017
22 February – 24 March 2017
ABOUT
Through a combination of painting, video, performance, and installation, the artistic practice of Thao-Phan Nguyen (Vietnam) focuses on historical events, traditional narratives, and minor gestures producing a refined imaginary that challenges common assumptions and social conventions. She has the ability to condense the manifold references to history, literature, philosophy, and theory that always frame her research into subtly poetic artworks that open up news spaces for reflection. Since 2016, she is the protégé of American artist Joan Jonas within the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, a programme which pairs gifted young artists with internationally recognised masters, sponsoring them to spend a year in a one-to-one mentoring relationship. Her recent exhibitions include Concept Context Contestation, Art and the Collective in South East Asia, Goethe Institut, Hanoi, Vietnam (2016); Haunted Thresholds: Spirituality in Contemporary Southeast Asia, Kunstverein Göttingen, Germany, (2014). and Tâm Tã, Hanoi Fine Arts Museum, Vietnam (2014). In 2012, she founded the collective Art Labor together with artist Truong Cong Tung and curator Arlette Quynh-Anh Tran Phan.
FOCUS
Thao-Nguyen Phan will expand her research on the introduction of the Latin alphabet as a writing system in Vietnam, exploring how the same transition occurred in other Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. In Vietnam, the Romanised script was first introduced in the 17th century by catholic missionaries to spread Christianity, playing a significant role in the process of colonization of the country. While official accounts celebrate the adoption of the Latin alphabet as a symbol of modernity, the implications of this historical process are far more complex and tell stories of cultural loss and gain, national amnesia, and violence.
http://ntu.ccasingapore.org/residencies/thao-nguyen-phan/
Embedded South(s)
Embedded South(s)
An online moving-image exhibition
November 3–6, 2016
embeddedsouths.org
Facebook
Artists: Bani Abidi (Germany/Pakistan); Fernando Arias (Colombia); Kannan Arunasalam (Sri Lanka); Sammy Baloji/ Lázara Rosell Albear (DR Congo/Cuba); Tiffany Chung (Vietnam/USA); Bakary Diallo (Mali); Andrew Esiebo/Annalisa Butticci (Nigeria/The Netherlands); Shanaka Galagoda (Sri Lanka); Ayrson Heráclito (Brazil); Sasha Huber (Switzerland/Haiti); Claudia Joskowicz (Bolivia/USA); Amar Kanwar (India); Mikhail Karikis (Greece/UK); Jompet Kuswidananto (Indonesia); Dinh Q Lê (Vietnam); Giovanna Miralles (Bolivia); Nguyễn Hương Trà (Vietnam); Nguyễn Thị Thanh Mai (Vietnam); Nguyễn Trinh Thi (Vietnam); David-Douglas Masamuna Ntimasiemi (DR Congo); Phan Thảo Nguyên (Vietnam); Renata Padovan (Brazil); Chulayarnnon Siriphol (Thailand); Sutthirat Supaparinya (Thailand); Kidlat Tahimik (The Philippines); Trần Lương (Vietnam); Trương Công Tùng (Vietnam); Vandy Rattana (Cambodia/Japan)
Co-curated by Zoe Butt (Executive Director and Curator, San Art, Ho Chi Minh City), Gabriela Salgado (Independent curator, London), and Lê Thuận Uyên (Independent researcher, Hanoi)
Embedded South(s) is an online moving-image exhibition examining particular cultural phenomena, within the complex social geographies of those who identify with a "south." Screened across three continents from November 3–6, 2016, with unique thematic each night, this program showcases the work of 29 artists from South Asia, South East Asia, Latin America, and Africa.
By "south" we understand this to be a geo-political terminology that labels a particular "tropic," often economically considered "developing" and culturally suffering the trauma of coloniality. However, we also understand this "south" to be a mobile entity in its diaspora, with many "souths" now in transference within the global flows of migration (forced, voluntary, political, or economic).
Anywhere but Here
September 14 - November 5, 2016
Opening: Tuesday, September 13, 2016, 6-9pm
Felix González-Torres, Hàm Nghi, Thao‑Nguyen Phan, Pratchaya Phinthong, Vandy Rattana, SAAP (Singapore Art Archive Project), Khvay Samnang, Albert Samreth, Sa Sa Art Projects, Shui Tit Sing, Shooshie Sulaiman, Tran Minh Duc, Vuth Lyno
Curators : Mélanie Mermod & Vera Mey
Anywhere But Here (N’importe où sauf ici, គ្រប់ទីកន្លែង លើកលែងទីនេះ) brings together artworks that seek out some circulations of objects, figures or gestures in relation to Cambodia, and more broadly within the geopolitical context of Southeast Asia. With a focus on deterritorialization – whether they would be forced or driven by free will, consequences of uncontrollable slippages or transfers carefully orchestrated – these collected stories of movements draw vanishing points within prevailing processes of history-making and patrimonial heritage.
Numerous shifts of power in Cambodia have repeatedly recast the conception of culture and historialization of facts and patrimony, including the seemingly timeless and ongoing tensions with its neighbors Vietnam and Thailand, the colonial French Protectorate (1863-1953), the 1970 coup leading to the assumption of power of Lon Nol, the following four years of civil war (1970-1974), meanwhile the rise South-East Asian Communist parties and the genocidal rule of the Khmer Rouge Regime (1975-1979), to the Vietnamese ruled People’s Republic of Kampuchea (1979-1991), the rule of United Nations Transitional Authority over the country (1992-1993), which led to the autocratic rule of Prime Minister Hun Sen (since 1998).
The works presented in Anywhere But Here address marginal movements developping within historical moments, such as the forced exile or voluntary displacements of intellectuals to France and its colonies (Hàm Nghi, Tran Minh Duc). The works of Thao-Nguyen Phan evoke the after-effects of French and Japanese intrusions on the evolution of agrarian landscape and deference gestures, while others invent new scenarios in patrimonial spaces (Shooshie Sulaiman, Pratchaya Phinthong). Some works trace the intimate trajectories of objects and anonymous persons (Felix González-Torres, Khvay Samnang, Vuth Lyno), while others take as their starting point former artists’ journeys that lie ambiguously between a quest for disorientation or a quest of tangible origins (Albert Samreth, Singapore Art Archive Project, Vandy Rattana).
Rolex mentors and protégés in visual arts, 2016-2017
The legendary Joan Jonas accepted Rolex’s invitation to be a mentor because, she says: “I enjoy meeting young artists and am curious about their concerns in this chaotic and difficult time. I hope to have a dialogue that might clarify thoughts and ideas. Also to exchange with another, information previously hidden – and to visit unknown spaces.” Moved by Jonas’s “extraordinary power to reinvent, being so groundbreaking from one work to the next”, protégée Thao-Nguyen Phan believes the mentorship will be “double-layered by the intimacy between two artistic souls and the complexity of shared history between Vietnam and the United States”.
http://www.rolexmentorprotege.com/pairing/2016-2017/thao-nguyen_phan_and_joan_jonas
Workshop and exhibition at Villa Iris, Santander, Spain, organized by Foundation Botin, 6-23 June 2016
The American artist Joan Jonas (New York, 1936) will direct Fundación Botín’s 2016 Visual Arts Workshop, to be held at Fundación Botín’s Villa Iris in Santander from June 6 to 23.
The 15 selected artists will both participate in the production of a new work by Joan Jonas and develop individual work that will focus on the subject of landscape, whether rural or urban. Using different approaches and perspectives, the artist will discuss the issue of sustainability in rural areas, taking into account “biodiversity and the conservation of traditions, architecture and landscape.” The resulting work will be presented at Villa Iris for two weeks as of June 23, while Fundación Botín’s exhibition space will feature the new work by Joan Jonas from June 24 to October 16.
Artists wishing to be considered for this workshop are invited to reflect upon the part landscape plays in their work. While this notion can of course be interpreted in different ways according to one’s interests and/or medium, the issue of sustainability in a rural area is an important one, whether from the standpoint of biodiversity, the preservation of traditions, architecture and landscapes. The issues implied are shared all over the world, as habitats are misused or disappear. One may choose any detail in the social network of nature to focus on. This might include certain systems such as roads or rivers, trees or wildlife.
Artist selected: Saverio Bonato (Italy); Sara Bonaventura (Italy); Aliansyah Caniago (Indonesia); Santiago Diaz Escamilla (Colombia); Galia Eibenschutz (Mexico); Ariel Elisabeth Gout (France); Allison Janae Hamilton (USA); Sonja Silke Hinrichsen (Germany); Noriko Koshida (Japan); Alessandra Messali (Italy); Carolina Redondo (Chile); Mara Danielle Streberger Elizalde (USA); Yusuke Taninaka (Japan); Phan Thao-Nguyen (Vietnam); Xavier José Cunilleras(España).
Art talk: Nguyen Manh Hung & Phan Thao Nguyen at gallerie Quynh
Galerie Quynh is pleased to invite you to an informal discussion with Nguyen Manh Hung and Phan Thao Nguyen on the occasion of Hung’s current solo exhibition at the gallery Farmers Got Power. We are thrilled to continue supporting educational programming – an important part of Galerie Quynh’s activities over the last decade.
Unromantic Memories, Dec 1 - 30, 2015
http://youlhwadang.co.kr/4907/
Date: 1st December ~ 30th December 2015
Venue: Gellery LOTUS, Youlhwadang Publishers, GyeongGi, Korea
Participant artists: Nguyen Trinh Thi, Phan Thao Nguyen, Phan Quang, The Propeller Group, Yang Yoonim, Yi Boram, Lee Sooyoung, Lee Wonho, Lee Changhoon, Joen Suhyun
Curated by Kim Jihye
Artist Fair Taiwan: Oct 2-9, 2015
Sàn Art to participate in the 14th Artist Fair Taiwan 2015, Taipei with works by Dinh Q. Le, Lena Bui, Le Phi Long, Pham Ngoc Lan, Phan Quang, Phan Thao Nguyen, Phunam, Tran Tuan and UuDam Tran Nguyen
Dates of Fair for San Art: 2 – 5 October, 2015
Venue
Zone D, Taipei Expo Park, Expo Dome
No. 1, Yumen St., Zhongshan Dist., Taipei City 104, Taiwan
Grand opening: 18:00 – 20:00, 2 October 2015
Opening hours: 11:00 – 19:30, 2 – 9 October 2015
Fair Organizer: Association of the Visual Arts in Taiwan (AVAT)
AALR - The Asian American Literary Review, Fall 2015
http://aalr.binghamton.edu/recollecting-vo-curators-notes/
My works feature in the Fall issue of AALR, the Asian American Literary review, curated by Võ Hồng Chương-Đài
