English | Tiếng Việt

A. Farm is pleased to present ‘Living, today for tomorrow‘, a group exhibition by Nguyen Hoa, Vicente Arresse and Que curated by Linh Le. The exhibition features works created by the three artists during their three-month residency, which started at the beginning of September 2024.
 
‘Living, today for tomorrow’, a rift on a Vietnamese expression for the impermanence of life and everything else, now through a mere play with words suggests a way of life with a sense of mild absurdity. An assertion — not quite. A question — not yet. A manual — perhaps. To live is to remember to misremember one’s national historical legacy; to acknowledge, and to confront what pains, haunts, comforts, and nurtures; and to notice the minute details of daily life as lurking in such a mundane anti-climatic repetition, there lies some humour and even disruption.

Opening reception
Saturday, 16 Nov 2024
5 pm

Exhibition on View
17 Nov 2024 & 20 – 24 Nov 2024
1 pm – 5 pm

A. Farm Studios @ Tree House,
6/4 Nguyen Dang Giai, Thao Dien,
Thu Duc, Ho Chi Minh City

Free admission

About The Artists:

Nguyễn Hoá works primarily with sculpture, woodcarving, lacquer, and painting. Having close ties with his hometown, Huế, he always yearns to converse with the gone past of the Nguyễn dynasty and its legacy, which is manifested through temples, mausoleums, traditions, and rituals. His works weave together the techniques of woodworking, and traditional lacquer, as well as distilled forms of painting in order to grasp the nuances of place, history, culture and nature. He was selected from an open call by A. Farm and Goethe Institut HCMC for a three-month residency.

“These words grow organically from an unexpected encounter of two souls existing in distinctly different circumstances but bound together by their rooting in the nostalgic beauty of Huế.

They grow from consequential conversations, big or small, deep or shallow, from exchanging jokes, innocent or tastefully vulgar, from a spontaneous outing with more souls from cities near or far, as each takes turns to plunge into a random swimming pool on the outskirts of Saigon.

As organic as how these words spread out on this piece of paper, when we cast our eyes on Hoá’s elaborate, intricate, rich and highly symbolic artworks, let us be playful and free from any socio-political notions of history and modernity, from any prescribed social standings. Let us join the artist at 15 years of age, so pure, with a heart bursting with a fascination for the traditional artisan craft from the old imperial city. That fascination has turned into a passion that nurtures Hoá’s artistic practice until this day. And tomorrow.” — A personal note from Châu.

Vicente Arresse works primarily with painting and explores the rich potential of everyday things, like eggs, washing machines or a car. Fascinated by the endless possibilities and scenarios an object can give and intrigued by the intersections with other disciplines, Vicente Arrese invites audiences to question conventional perception through sculptural language and spatial installation. He was selected for ‘Ecologies of Water’ — a programme supported by the Leipzig Office for International Cooperation. which looks to strengthen the cultural ties between Leipzig and Ho Chi Minh City, sister cities with a rich history of cooperation and exchange.

“The idea of an artistic residency appeals to me because it offers a chance to find inspiration in a new environment. During my residency in Saigon as part of a Leipzig-Saigon exchange, I’ve engaged with the rhythms of local life, responding to the city’s unique identity. Much like I’ve found inspiration in everyday objects like eggs, washing machines, or avocados in the past, in my time here, I have focused on finding these things, objects, items and environments that are present in everyday life in the city of Saigon. In the hope to blur the lines between utility and play, function and form, encouraging viewers to experience the familiar in ways that reveal shared aspects of daily life across cultures.”

Quế is a Danang-born and Saigon-based image-maker and independent art organiser. His practice focuses in the function of media, especially those that can create (or contain) communication (such as photography with the storage capacity to recall–contrast–perceive –illusion) to talk about the structure of discourse in (semi) free spaces. Then adapt to the paradigm of mass media – communication for individuals operating in the contemporary digital space. From the personal works that made from the grown up time based on the development of his urban life, Que started to focus on other existants from outside through research information–research essays about events that collaborate poetry–prose works as main material. He was selected from an open call by A. Farm and Goethe Institut HCMC for a residency three-month residency.

“I borrowed from those that exist along the rivers as evidence of my trauma. From the thoughts I had about how children (like me) would grow up in an urbanised space, startled, I realised I have always repeated the patterns born from generational trauma that has haunts my family.

I used the symbols of “lotus” and “river”, which were inspired by the names of my own parents, at the centre of my work. Those are symbolic obsessions that build on top of one another, and then transform into physical and mental pains. This body of work is a way for me to unpack my own family’s history in a pseudo-scientific manner.”

About A. Farm:

A. Farm is an international art residency program in Ho Chi Minh City, supporting collaboration and exchange among Vietnamese and international artists. It is managed by MoT +++ and Goethe-Institut Ho Chi Minh City with support from Amanaki Thao Dien. In Season 6, running from September to December 2024, A. Farm also partnered with the Leipzig Office for International Cooperation to host one Leipzig-based artist.