No more, not yet
03 February – 16 June 2023
Nguyễn Art Foundation • HCMC
A solo exhibition by Nguyen Thi Thanh Mai
Curated by Bill Nguyen • Assistant curators Nhat Q. Vo and Thái Hà
03 February – 16 June 2023
Nguyễn Art Foundation • HCMC
A solo exhibition by Nguyen Thi Thanh Mai
Curated by Bill Nguyen • Assistant curators Nhat Q. Vo and Thái Hà
No more, not yet looks back on Nguyen Thi Thanh Mai’s shapeshifting artistic practice over the last decade. From the undocumented, ethnic Vietnamese community living on Tonlé Sap lake (Siem Reap and Pursat, Cambodia); to migrant labourers crushed by the deep divide of social class in Korea; to the pain of martyrs’ wives, first separated from their husbands by war, and then by death, Thanh Mai immerses herself in the stories that lurk beneath official narratives and, although there seems to be no end in sight, insists on the right to survival of those deemed dispensable. In No more, not yet, the viewer encounters Thanh Mai as an independent practitioner with her own projects and interests, but also as an artist working within the wider context of the Hue arts scene, whose vision complements that of her peers.
Revolving around the undocumented, ethnic Vietnamese community living on Tonlé Sap lake (Siem Reap and Pursat, Cambodia) whom Thanh Mai has been working with for the better part of a decade, the artworks on display in the first part of the exhibition present the artist’s ongoing observations and reflections on a community whose fate is no longer in its control. Due to various historical shifts, wars, genocide, and the complex political relationship between Vietnam and Cambodia, the people of this community have been denied the right to documentation, legal protection and education, thus becoming displaced, stateless and impoverished.
From photography and documentary film to sound installation, experimental video and archival documents, Thanh Mai uses an array of media first to slowly approach the community, then to carefully rearrange and piece together the stories (of dreams, and often nightmares) they shared with her, to finally re-present, as truthfully as possible, their collective sense of loss and irrevocable reality of continuous displacement. If the first phase of the project (Day by day, 2014–2015) is coloured with hope, then the next phase (Black landscapes, 2017–ongoing) is, by contrast, dramatically sunless, somber, and visually minimal, mirroring a Tonlé Sap that has been exhausted by environmental pollution, the climate crisis, and notably the mass construction of hydroelectric dams along the Mekong River.
The second part of the exhibition introduces the practices and concerns of the larger collective to which Thanh Mai belongs—the contemporary artist community in Hue—with a focus on the Edge of the Citadel project. Initiated in 2021 by Thanh Mai and friends, with the participation of nearly 20 artists, the project follows the thread spun in No more, not yet on the uprooting and forced displacement of marginalised communities, specifically that of the thousands of households living on and by the walls of the citadel. Within the perimeters of the citadel, there are two further walled enclosures called the Imperial City and the Purple Forbidden City. After 1945 and in the following decades, those fleeing the war began to move in and settle along the walls of the citadel and the Eo Bau area. Over time, spontaneous communities began to form; they built houses, planted crops, and took up odd jobs. In 2019, Hue kicked off a campaign—to be implemented between 2019–2025—to clear out various areas within the Hue citadel and relocate its residents. In the name of preserving this World Heritage Site, around 15,000 people will be displaced by the end. Over the last few years, many families in the upper citadel have been forced to move to resettlement areas, leaving behind a sprawling ruin—a past being flattened, complete erasure lying in wait.
Nguyen Thi Thanh Mai
Artists of Edge of the Citadel
Nguyen Thi Thanh Mai, Hoang Ngoc Tu, Nguyen Hoa, Nguyen Van He, Xuan Ha, Tran Tuan, Ngo Dinh Bao Chau, The Appendix Group, Le Thi Minh Nguyet, Nguyen Thi Khanh Anh, Dao Tung, Duong Thanh Quang, Uyen Minh, Ho Anh Vu, Tran Chau Nhi, Nguyen Van Ton, Nguyen Duc Niem, Vien Phuong
Curator
Bill Nguyen
Assistant curators
Nhat Q. Vo, Thái Hà
Thái Hà
Graphic design
Nhat Q. Vo
Assistant
Hue Nguyen
Installation
Nhung Le, Bao Khanh & Co.
Co-sponsors
Nguyễn Art Foundation, ROH Projects, Chu Foundation, The Factory Contemporary Arts Centre