An exhibition by Nguyễn Phương Linh & Trương Quế Chi
with Đạt Nguyễn, Hiroyuki Hattori & Hiroyuki Ura
12 March — 20 April 2021 (10 AM — 6 PM; Tuesday – Sunday)
The exhibition takes place simultaneously at two venues:
Manzi Exhibition Space, 02 ngõ Hàng Bún
The Japan Foundation Center for Cultural Exchange in Vietnam, 27 Quang Trung
Opening hours on 12 March: 2 PM — 6 PM (no opening reception will be organized)
Opening hours of the exhibition area inside the Japan Foundation library: Tuesday – Saturday; 10AM – 12PM; 1PM – 6 PM)

Free entrance

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‘A struggle to start writing about something, without adding to or subtracting from its weight
being tricked by a longing for lightness
to endure heaviness
has its silver lining: one can still sense weight
passing the point that makes black humor
come distances, varied:
geographical, physical, in between those involved
‘things that ought to come’ does not mean being ready for such
the foresight prompts much odd rhythms
ungraspable without the pulse of some apparatus
light is rhythmic
a nonverbal correspondence
one instinctive, one austere
an exquisite corpse
proving difficult to dissect
everything revolves around that bed
— which I slept on
life, death, mirth, and nightmare
a pole, a lightning rod
first entrance through a veil-skirt hung mid air
the collapse of one’s own abode
all is a stage
absurd, sore, romantic fragments
a play is but the wait for its happenings
inevitable baggage: the objects
in front of the partition await those waiting for their allotted number
Uhm,
Exit one whom Heaven calls forth.’

– Notes from a hiccup-ish conversation between curator Đạt Nguyễn and a newfound friend, Ngân on EYES WITHOUT A FACE

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As part of the exhibition, the following events will be held:

1. A conversation on Memory and Space with guest speaker, curator Hiroyuki Hattori and participating artists Nguyễn Phương Linh and Trương Quế Chi
6:30PM, Wednesday 24 March
The Japan Foundation Center for Cultural Exchange in Vietnam, 27 Quang Trung

2. LIFE AND ITS DOUBLE, a play by Trương Quế Chi
7PM, Sundays 04 April & 18 April
Terrace, Manzi Exhibition Space, 02 ngõ Hàng Bún

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EYES WITHOUT A FACE is a project co-organized by the Japan Foundation Center for Cultural Exchange in Vietnam and Manzi Art Space, with support from the Goethe-Institut, and other organizations, individuals and close friends.
Acknowledgement: curator Đạt Nguyễn, guest speaker/curator Hiroyuki Hattori, composer Hiroyuki Ura, technical crew Dương Thanh Quang, Lê Đình Chung, Nguyễn Trần Nam, Nguyễn Nhật Quang, Lê Dụng Hiệp, painter Đỗ Thanh Lãng, coordinator Trần Duy Hưng, PR assistant Trần Thùy Thiên Kim, translator Nguyễn Hoàng Thiên Ngân

VISITORS NOTES:
– To ensure the artwork’s condition and provide an optimal viewing experience, we can only accommodate maximum 8 visitors in an exhibition space at a time.
– In light of the current coronavirus developments, please wear mask when visiting and use the hand sanitizer provided at the entrance.

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About artists

Artist NGUYỄN PHƯƠNG LINH
Spanning installation, sculpture, and moving image, Nguyễn Phương Linh’s multidisciplinary practice contemplates upon the visible and invisible truth, form and time, conveying a pervasive sense of dislocation and the ephemeral.
Nguyễn Phương Linh was born and grew up in Nha San – based in her father’s home, it’s considered the longest established non-profit artist-run space in Hanoi. In 2013, she co-found and co-directed Nha San Collective with her close artist friends.
Phương Linh has participated in various local and international exhibitions, including the Singapore Biennale, Kuandu Biennale Taipei and Shanghai Biennale in 2016. She won the Hans Nefkens Foundation-BACC Award for Contemporary Art 2018.
At the moment, a work of her is being featured in the group exhibition [Those who Do not move Do not notice Their chains], organized by Rosa-Luxemburg Stiftfung Southeast-Asia in Hanoi, from March 6th to April 12th.

Artist TRƯƠNG QUẾ CHI
Based in Hanoi, Trương Quế Chi is an artist and curator working in the domains of cinema and the visual arts. Her works are prompted by the search for a landscape, a mise-en-scène in relation to space-time, at the borders of different terrains, coming across “the height of tolerance”.
She has been a member of Nhà Sàn Collective’s curator board and a lecturer at the Hanoi Academy of Theatre and Cinema since 2015.

Curator/artist ĐẠT NGUYỄN
Nguyen Duc Dat (1979) is a multimedia artist, currently living and working in Dalat. He is a member of Sao La Collective and one of the co-founders of the art bar “Cu Ru” in Ho Chi Minh City and Dalat. Recently, he is honored to be invited by Nha San Collective as an curator and art director of Nha San.
His works were showed in a number of exhibitions such as Nguchonobay (2017), Salt of the Jungle (2017), No Cai Bum (2020).
In addition to his personal projects, Nguyen Duc Dat also works as a curator and organizer for community art projects such as “March: Art Walk”, “Art Walk II”, exhibitions “Địa/ phương ~ local-liti”, “Nguchonobay”, the zine “Art and Law”.
He appreciates manual labor world and at the same time is interested in the artistic and spiritual lives of local community; explore the tragic-comedic transformation of all things. He especially pays attention to the seemingly small, simple, silly things, hearts on the edge of life, what is out of the pattern, as a critical way or to get a deeper understanding of norms and institutions as well as the immensity can be found in every person.
With the position of curator and organization, he wants to illuminate the artist’s spirit through the disappearance of a curator.

Guest speaker/Curator HIROYUKI HATTORI
Following his graduation in architecture from Waseda University Graduate School in 2006, Hattori spent the next ten years curating at two major art centers, with a focus on their respective artist-in-residence programs. In addition to being involved in the residential artists’ research and production processes, Hattori also worked on various projects. In recent years, he has been teaching arts management, curating, project design and production of public sphere in a practical approach and also directing and creating programs at the art schools and institutions. He is the curator of “Cosmo-Eggs,” the exhibition of the Japan Pavilion at the 58th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia in 2019.

Composer HIROYUKI URA
Born in Tokyo in 1984.
Ura is a composer/player active in the field of experimental music.
Recently he has also been active in countries outside Japan, and recordings of his compositions and performances have been released on overseas labels.
http://ura.two-lines.org
Selected Exhibitions: Triple Loop, Irregular Rhythm Asylum, Tokyo (2020), Not(a) Fantasma, Space Dike, Tokyo (2019), Scores (with Kenichi Kanazawa) Gallery Natsuka, Tokyo / CAS, Osaka, (2018), Ghost Note, Omise, Tokyo (2017)