Join the exhibition opening with Thao Nguyen Phan when CPH:DOX kicks off

Wednesday 13 March, Kunsthal Charlottenborg opens its doors to the solo exhibition with world-renowned artist Thao Nguyen Phan. The exhibition opens on the same day as one of the world's largest documentary film festivals, CPH:DOX, which again has its festival center at Kunsthal Charlottenborg. This is celebrated with a talk with the Vietnamese artist who has developed a visual language with inspiration from filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Joan Jonas, a pioneer of video and performance.

Through more than 100 works from the past ten years, the first solo exhibition in Scandinavia with Thao Nguyen Phan will present the artist’s delicate and captivating oeuvre to the visitors including poetic film installations, meticulously executed silk and lacquer paintings, light sculptures, delicate watercolours and architectural interventions.

In her videos, painting comes alive, creating a dreamlike imagery in which folk traditions, fairytale narratives, literature, philosophy, and everyday life merge. 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.

Investigating the artist’s career from a new perspective through the overlay of canvases, screens, and moving images, the visitors are confronted with central themes of Phan’s practice: The relationship between humans and nature; the colonization of Vietnam and its social transformations; the cultural intermingling of East and West, tradition and modernity, locality and globality; and the combination of memory, folklore, and myth to create collective narratives as an alternative to the official historical accounts imposed by dominant political forces.

Thao Nguyen Phan (b. 1987, Ho Chi Minh City; 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 the Art Institute of Chicago. Latest, she has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in international institutions including Pirelli HangarBicocca (2023), 59. Venice Art Biennale (2022), Tate St Ives (2022). In 2016-17, she was included among the Protegée Rolex, accompanied by Joan Jonas as a mentor, among the most recognized living artists and performers, and won the Han Nefkens Foundation – LOOP Barcelona Video Art Award 2018. In addition, she is co-founder of the Art Labor collective in Ho Chi Minh City, which explores interdisciplinary practices and develops art projects to benefit the local Vietnamese community.

Reincarnations of Shadows is organized by Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan, where the exhibition was presented in the autumn of 2023, in collaboration with Kunsthal Charlottenborg. The solo exhibition at Kunsthal Charlottenborg is curated by Henriette Bretton-Meyer and supported by supported by The Aage and Johanne Louis-Hansen’s Foundation, The Augustinus Foundation, The Beckett Foundation, The Danish Arts Foundation, The Obel Family Foundation, The William Demant Foundation.

Program for the opening

16.00-17.30: Drinks in Apollo Bar, Negroni DKK 60
17.00-18.00: Artist talk with Thao Nguyen Phan (English)
18.00-20.00: Opening of the exhibition Reincarnations of Shadows
18.00-20.00: DJ Aida Mai, the bar is open

Practical information

Thao Nguyen Phan: Reincarnations of Shadows
13 March – 11 August 2024
Exhibition opening: 13 March, 17.00-20.00
Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Kongens Nytorv 1, 1050 Copenhagen K
Further info here