The Factory cordially invites you to a conversation with Trần Minh Đức – one of the participating artists of our current exhibition ‘Singing to the Choir?’ (with Phan Anh and Ngọc Nâu). Co-curator Bill Nguyễn, with Đức, will look into his treatment and incorporation of ‘found objects’* (as witnesses of a bygone era) in his art, discussing how such material remnants can serve to preserve personal and collective memory, across differing space and generation.
As a part of his artistic practice, Trần Minh Đức collects photographs and artifacts which he stumbles upon during various research trips, sometimes completely by chance in the midst of daily life in Saigon. Đức then ‘relocates’ them into his artworks. In this exhibition, we see two such objects – dismembered arms (originally forming parts of two different religious sculptures); an old Vietnamese Youth Union badge; photos found on the Internet documenting children’s performances (often of patriotic songs); and a set of educational publications promoting nationalist sentiment via group activities and games at school. What kind of narrative do these objects recall? Who and what do they represent/embody? If we consider them as fragments (with different origins) forming a new hybrid in this exhibition, what does this act of merging (collaging) mean? How do we understand this new hybrid in comparison to what these objects once were? Is it important to consider what meanings mattered by the person who first created them?
These questions and more will be discussed. This informal conversation asks you – our audience – to become participants, meanwhile Đức – our artist – will also take on the role of the listener.
*Found objects (a literal translation from the French objet trouvé, meaning objects with non-art functions that are placed into an art context and made part of an artwork) were popularized by Marcel Duchamp and the Dada movement during the first half of the 1900s as an artistic media, and later on by conceptual artists such as Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin (amongst others).
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Participating Fee
➖Adult: 100,000VND (online); 130,000VND (at door)
➖Student or Inner Circle member: 40,000VND (with your student ID or member card)
*Image: Trần Minh Đức, ‘Singing in Pink’. 2019. Digital C-print on paper, bubble wrap. Installed dimensions variable, 136 photographs
**Participants of the event allow The Factory and co-organizer (if applicable) to use their images and statements as a documentary for the program, for non-commercial purposes such as archive, press, media, promotion on our website, Facebook etc.
