Thao Nguyen Phan: Reincarnations of Shadows

From September 14, 2023 to January 14, 2024 Pirelli HangarBicocca presents Reincarnations of Shadows, Thao Nguyen Phan’s first solo show in Italy. The exhibition, curated by Lucia Aspesi and Fiammetta Griccioli, is organized by Pirelli HangarBicocca in collaboration with Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen. Internationally recognized for her combined use of painting, moving image, and sculpture, Phan creates dreamlike and poetic narratives that trace the history of her country in relation to contemporary environmental and social changes. The exhibition, conceived as a layering of audio, visual, and tactile references among videos, sculptures, watercolors, silk and lacquer paintings, explores Phan’s practice, highlighting its symbolic and imaginative qualities. For the occasion, the artist has created a series of new productions and presents for the first time the video installation Reincarnations of Shadows (moving-image-poem) (2023): a personal reflection on the transformative and regenerative potential of art.

Thao Nguyen Phan (Ho Chi Minh City, 1987; lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City) studied painting at Ho Chi Minh University of Fine Arts, Lasalle College of Arts in Singapore and at the School of Arts Institute of Chicago and was later introduced to the moving image through the filmic works of authors such as the historic director Yasujirō Ozu (1903-1963), the renowned filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul (1970), and Joan Jonas (1936), a pioneer of video and performance. Phan thus begins to develop a visual language in which pictorial matter, acting as a conceptual, narrative, and connective element, combines with different media and supports, from textiles to printed books. The artist traces Vietnam’s turbulent historical events, reflecting on environmental and social changes related to human impact, such as the exploitation of natural resources and the destruction and colonization of the landscape.

“Reincarnations of Shadows—the first solo show dedicated to Thao Nguyen Phan by an Italian institution—includes new productions and presents a series of installations, watercolors, sculptures, and videos by immersing the visitors in the artist’s delicate oeuvre. The title of the exhibition takes its cue from the new video, Reincarnations of Shadows (moving-image-poem) (2023), commissioned by Pirelli HangarBicocca and co-produced by Fondazione In Between Art Film. Delving into the figure of artist Diem Phung Thi (1920-2002)—one of the first Vietnamese modernist women sculptors who lived and worked between France and Vietnam—the video reflects on the social meanings of art history and architecture and the intergenerational relationships between women artists in post-colonial contexts. Phan questions the possibilities for the reincarnation and re-signification of hidden symbols, gestures and rituals that have remained in the shadows, passed down through whispered oral narratives and often overpowered by the lingering effects of colonialism.

The exhibition is divided into two communicating and permeable areas: the first traces the artist’s career from a new perspective through the overlay of canvases, screens, and moving images. To access the second part of the exhibition, the public is invited to walk through the large installation, No Jute Cloth for the Bones (2019-2023), composed of suspended raw jute stalks. The second environment is dedicated to the new production. Accompanied by a selection of Diem Phung Thi’s sculptural works from the 1970s-90s—which inspire the exhibition’s seating and display tables—the video celebrates the career of this artist, a fundamental figure to the history of Vietnamese Modernism.

Catalogue
The exhibition in Pirelli HangarBicocca is accompanied by a monograph dedicated to the artist. The editorial project brings together a plurality of perspectives, including contributions from international critics such as Filipa Ramos, art historian, and Roger Nelson, curator and Assistant Professor of Art History at the School of Humanities, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Moreover, the volume includes a conversation between Thao Nguyen Phan and the exhibition’s curators, Lucia Aspesi and Fiammetta Griccioli, and an interview between the artist and Phan Dinh Hoi, personal assistant to Diem Phung Thi. Together with an extensive photographic documentation of the show at Pirelli HangarBicocca, the book is enriched by critical insights on the exhibited videos written by Han Nefkens, writer and founder of the Han Nefkens Foundation; Alessandro Rabottini, artistic director of In Between Art Film; Quyên Nguyễn-Hoàng, a Vietnam and US-based writer, translator and curator; and Andrea Lissoni, director of the Haus der Kunst in Munich.

Pirelli HangarBicocca, an institution founded in 2004, was relaunched in 2012 by Pirelli, which has been a founding partner since its inception. In recent years the exhibition space has consolidated its role as an art center, attracting an international audience with shows that stand out for their high curatorial standards and great visual impact, and thanks to its offer of unique exhibition projects. The spaces of Pirelli HangarBicocca also host the permanent installation The Seven Heavenly Palaces 2004-2015 by Anselm Kiefer, which has become a reference point for visitors from all over the world, and the sculpture La Sequenza (1971-81) by Fausto Melotti.