Bangkok--17 May--TQPR
Galerie Quynh is excited to present Between Fragmentation and Wholeness – an exhibition of new work by Truong Cong Tung. Curated by Arlette Quynh-Anh Tran, this is Truong's first solo exhibition at the gallery and the first comprehensive show of his work in almost a decade.
Between Fragmentation and Wholeness refers to The Wholeness and the Implicate Order (1980), a book authored by David Bohm, a distinguished physicist in the field of quantum theory. Influential beyond his own discipline, notably in philosophy and art, Bohm was recognized for his application of physics on the rationale of human consciousness and the universe. According to Bohm, the universe has an implicate order in which it enfolds and unfolds to extend into infinite dimensionality. Everything is connected within this unbroken wholeness and any individual element can reveal detailed information about every other element in the universe. Truong's exhibition is an analogy to Bohm's concept. It is his consciousness of the wholeness of his inner self and his surroundings that unfolds fragmented elements of the self, family, region, country and extensively the world. Truong makes sense of the nonsense, connecting the non-aligned, and entwines it through time and space to create a nonlinear wholeness.
Between Fragmentation and Wholeness invites viewers to enter Truong Cong Tung's multidimensional reality through three main axes in the gallery space: vertically – with the ruptures in urban planning and propagated doctrine; horizontally – with mystical human-altered landscapes in agrarian territories; and diagonally – with a mirage of blazing images extracted from the virtual domain. The bodies of works appear in various mediums from collaged sculptures of natural and manmade objects to video installations and layered drawings in light boxes. All contribute to a powerful language of semiotics – of self-indicated signs – which moves beyond the mimesis of nature. Departing from his own personal context of the Central Highlands and Saigon, Vietnam, Truong Cong Tung proposes an understanding of the totality of humanity where our linear modernization unfolds, mimics, adjusts and then disrupts nature – not just the natural world but also the human desire for collectivism and harmony.
There will be exhibition tours with the Curator on Saturday, the 2 June at 3pm (Vietnamese) and 5pm (English) as well as an artist talk at the gallery on Saturday, the 23 June at 5pm (bilingual). Please contact the gallery if you should like more details on its educational programming.
Artist: Truong Cong Tung
Exhibition Title: Between Fragmentation and Wholeness
Exhibition Dates: May 25 – June 30, 2018
Opening Reception: Thursday, May 24 from 6:30 – 8:30pm Venue: Galerie Quynh
118 Nguyen Van Thu, Dakao, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City
Contacts: Ms. Celine Alexandre –
[email protected]
Ms. Nguyen Khanh Huyen –
[email protected]
Telephone: +84 28 3822 7218
Hours: 10 am – 7 pm, Tuesday – Saturday, and by appointment
ABOUT TRUONG CONG TUNG
Born in Dak Lak, Central Highlands in 1986 into a Vietnamese agricultural family residing among various ethnic minority groups, Truong Cong Tung later moved to Saigon in his late teens. Truong has witnessed the country's rapid changes in economics, politics, and society and the impact on the environment in both rural and urban areas during its modernization process – one that pivots on the morphing of nature in the interests of human desire and demand. His artistic practice is an explication of the absurdity of human reasoning and treatment of our natural surroundings based both on his personal experience and through his research in the fields of science, cosmology and philosophy. Truong's bodies of works are often multilayered and consist of material manipulations of both natural and human origins. They appear as coherent narratives, yet are tacitly perplexing with their individual parts of manoeuvred images, information, fiction and facts.
Truong Cong Tung's work has been exhibited in prestigious institutions such as Para Site, Hong Kong; Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland (July – October 2018); Kadist, San Francisco; Bildmuseet Umea University, Sweden; Osage Art Foundation, Hong Kong; Museum of Contemporary Art, Santa Barbara, CA, USA; and Kunstverein Gottingen, Germany. Truong has also participated in art festivals and biennales such as Dhaka Art Summit 2018, Bangladesh; Tapei Biennale 2016, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan; Koganecho Bazaar 2014, Yokohama, Japan; and SeMa Biennale Media City 2014, Seoul, Korea. Truong began his career working with the some of Vietnam's most important not-for-profit spaces supporting critical and experimental practice such as San Art (Ho Chi Minh City), Himiko Visual Salon (Ho Chi Minh City) and Nha San Collective (Hanoi). He is also a member of Art Labor (founded in 2012), a collective working between the visual arts, social and life sciences in order to produce alternative non-formal knowledge via artistic and cultural activities in various public contexts and locales.
ABOUT ARLETTE QUYNH-ANH TRAN
Based in Saigon, Arlette Quynh-Anh Tran is a curator, writer and member of the collective Art Labor. She is currently Curator and Director of Post Vidai – the world's largest collection of contemporary Vietnamese art located in Geneva and Saigon. Tran was previously Assistant Curator at Sàn Art and Assistant Curator at Saigon Open City (curated by Rirkrit Tiravanija and Gridthiya Gaweewong). Her curatorial practices aim to go beyond the mere aesthetic value of art and consider art as catalyst, which uses visual language to interpret, question, and narrate multiple spheres of a topic. She focuses on collaborative labor between visual art and other disciplines, from natural and social sciences to business, design and fashion. Tran has contributed research, texts and thoughts to various local and international publications, exhibitions and projects such as Istanbul Biennale 2015; Hugo Boss Asia Award 2015, Shanghai; 2084 (2012) with Pelin Tan and Anton Vidokle; Digitizing the Archival Materials of Blue Space Contemporary Arts Centre for Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong; World Biennale Forum No. 1, Gwangju, Korea; SYNAPSE – International
Curators' Network, HKW, Berlin; and several solo and group shows for young emerging artists in the region. As a member of Art Labor, Tran has participated in exhibitions and residencies at CCA- NTU Singapore, CCA Warsaw, Times Museum Guangdong, and Centre Pompidou Paris.
ABOUT GALERIE QUYNH
Recognized as Vietnam's leading contemporary art gallery, Galerie Quynh has been promoting contemporary art practice in the country for almost two decades. The gallery is known internationally for its consistently focused programming and educational initiatives. Working with a select group of emerging, mid-career and established Vietnamese artists, the gallery also exhibits the work of distinguished artists from around the world. In keeping with its mission to develop a sustainable ecosystem for the arts in Vietnam, the gallery collaborates with artists, curators, museums and art spaces locally and internationally to organize talks and lectures as well as to produce publications in English and Vietnamese. In May 2014 the gallery founded the non-profit educational initiative Sao La. Spearheaded by Ho Chi Minh City-based artists Nguyen Kim To Lan and Nguyen Duc Dat, Sao La currently comprises a young, diverse group of passionate creatives working loosely as a collective.
A new chapter began in December 2017 when the gallery moved to a 600 sq.m. space in Dakao, District 1. Spread over four floors, the gallery will be able to produce more ambitious programming and play an even more vital role in the cultural community.
www.galeriequynh.com