Tuan Mami

Last updated

Tuan Mami (born 1981) [1] is a Vietnamese conceptual artist based in Hanoi. Tuan Mami's works are often based on site-specific and re-constructional concepts to deal with questions about art, life, meaning and social interactions between people. Constantly exploring new mediums and methods of expression, Tuan Mami is known for his daring, and increasingly meditative experimentations with installation, video, performance and conceptual art. [2]

Contents

Life

Tuan Mami graduated from Hanoi Fine Art University in 2006. He was Visiting Faculty at San Francisco Art Institute in 2013. He founded MAC-Hanoi, a Mobile Art Center in 2012 [3] and co-founded of Nha San Collective in 2013 - a group of young artists who dedicate ourselves to pushing boundaries for freedom of expression within the Vietnam context in relation to globalization.

Work

In One’s Breath Nothing Stands Still (2017)

Tuan Mami's In One's Breath Nothing Stands Still (2014-2017), which Framer Framed presented for the Intersections programme of Art Rotterdam in 2017. The multimedia installation is a product of several years of research by the artist into the pollution, loss of biodiversity, and disruption of local culture in Hà Nam, Vietnam caused by years of exploitative stone mining. The subject is an intimate one for the artist because Hà Nam is also his hometown. In One's Breath manifests a sort of post-apocalyptic scene that balances between stillness and movement, truth and imagination – it is at once reality and a haunting dream. The disjunctions held together in the space come from Tuan Mami's own thoughts of his hometown, as he observes its transition from the paradise of his childhood to a site of exploitation. [4]

Myth in East Mist (2015)

Myth in East Mist is a project based on research about the Vietnamese community in South Korea, where about 65,000 multicultural Vietnamese–Korean families live. Most of the families consist of Vietnamese brides who have come to South Korea to marry a Korean man. Many brides bring their mothers from Vietnam to stay with them, most of which cannot speak Korean, have no friends, and remain isolated. This artwork is a way of remedying dismissed cultures, pressures from non-stop journeying to find a better life, and of filling the borders between geographical gaps, spaces, times and different cultures. To express feelings such as absence, love or remembrance, Tuan Mami chose to use the ritual and hobby of knitting - inspired by a lot of stories and old myths of Vietnamese women who stayed quiet and lonely waiting for their beloved ones to come back home from the battle zone safely. These were women who knitted sweaters and scarves to send to their men as a symbol of protection and as a love message. By utilizing the old myths, Tuan Mami creates a platform in the gallery space for Vietnamese women in South Korea where they not only enact a knitting ritual, but also where they can meet each other and share their stories. [5]

Physicality (2013)

The artwork is based on research done at Room 1, Nha San Collective space at Zone 9, Hanoi - the former Central Pharmaceutical Factory II, which originated from Army Medical Department Pharmaceutical Factory (established in 1947 with the purpose of producing medicines for the army). The permeation of perennial chemicals makes the room reeked of medicines and it is deeply ingrained in the humid walls, creating a haunting atmosphere about life, death and the invisible existence of the physical world. Tuan Mami chose the most suitable cacti to grow in boxes filled with of humid wall mortar from Room 1 itself to and then put the cacti there right in the room. Through the retention and transformation of material, the material itself becomes a historical existence. [6]

The Utopia (2012)

Tuan Mami covered Japan Foundation Library floor with 100 kg of rice seeds and a thick sheet of glass. This installation created a field of rice - an “utopia” within a normal library. The pressed rice seeds by glass gradually grew day by day even without water and soil throughout the exhibition duration. The visitors might paradoxically feel the freedom of the rice plants that grow in such difficult conditions as well as the risky and impossible temptation of touching to feel the rice plant. In the exhibition opening, Tuan Mami invited his mother to be an art tour guide and invited 100 of her female friends to come to visit the exhibition. It was the first time in their life to see an art exhibition. The artworks re-constructs the relationship between different generations, between audience-art-artist-artspace, re-analyzes the definition of social view while dig into the structure of an artwork. [7]

1000 Art Objects Which Have Lost Their Context (2012)

Inspired by the questions: What is art? What have artists used to present their art practice? Tuan Mami made a book classifying daily life/art objects. He chose single images of things that exist around us and that are in our lives, then separated them from their context and reproduce them on transparency paper. All the images represent the temporality of life, of culture, and of the worlds surrounding our life.

Protest Against The Void No.2

The work includes an Artist, a Gallerist, a Couple, and a Young man. They are anonymous actors with particular actions. The audience is directed to go through an art manifesto made by rice powder, a hidden masturbating man, a hidden couple having sex, a young man who fighting intensely with the void corner by using chilly powder. In the performance, Tuan Mami created a sort of mysterious space but with a realistic orientation. An ambiguous play drives people to the zone of knowing and unknowing. [8]

Exhibitions

Tuan Mami has participated in international art events and exhibitions including UnAuthorised Medium, Framer Framed, the Netherlands (2018) Intersections, Art Rotterdam, the Netherlands (2017), Plastic Myths, Asian Culture Center, Korea (2015) Changwon Sculpture Biennale (2014); Pharmacide Project, Traveling Between Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, And France (2012) ; Beyond Pressure; Burma (2011), The 7th Asia-Europe Art Camp – Art Workshop Luxembourg/Shanghai (2009-2010); Institute of Contemporary art in Singapore(2011); A Crossroads At The Institute Of Contemporary Art Singapore (2011); Utopia, Japan Foundation, Hanoi, (2012); Celebration Of Our Moment And Farewell Party, Halle 6, Munich (2011); And What Is Mom Waiting For?, Hooyong Art Center, South Korea (2011); Hà nội- Berlin, Berlin(2009). He has been an artist-in-residence at Hoyoong performing arts center in South Korea, Tokyo Wonder Site, Tokyo; Organhaus Art Space, China, Casino Luxembourg, Luxembourg; 934 Studio, China; Sàn Art, Vietnam [9]

Related Research Articles

Music of Vietnam

Traditional Vietnamese music encompasses a large umbrella of Vietnamese music from antiquity to present times, and can also encompass multiple groups, such as those from Vietnam's ethnic minority tribes. Throughout its history, Vietnam has been most heavily influenced by traditional Chinese music, along with Korea, Mongolia and Japan.

Phạm Tuân

Phạm Tuân is a retired Vietnam Air Force aviator and space traveler. He became the first Vietnamese citizen and the first non-Soviet Asian in space when he flew aboard the Soyuz 37 mission as an Interkosmos Research Cosmonaut. He was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.

Culture of Vietnam Culture of Vietnam

The culture of Vietnam is one of the oldest in Southeast Asia, with the ancient Bronze age Đông Sơn culture being widely considered one of its most important progenitors. Although geographically Southeast Asian and part of the ASEAN bloc, Vietnamese culture was heavily influenced by Chinese culture in terms of politics, government, social and moral ethics, and art due to 1000 years of Chinese rule. Vietnam is considered to be part of the East Asian cultural sphere together with Korea, Japan and Greater China.

Vietnamese art

Vietnamese art is visual art that, whether ancient or modern, originated in or is practiced in Vietnam or by Vietnamese artists.

Nguyễn Tuân

Nguyễn Tuân was a renowned Vietnamese author. Current literature books for public school in Vietnam rank him as one of the nine biggest authors of contemporary Vietnamese literature. He is known for his essays on multiple subjects, with a clever and creative way in using the language. Hanoi has a street named after him, in the Thanh Xuan district.

Phan Kế An

Phan Kế An, also known under the pseudonym Phan Kích, was a Vietnamese painter and renowned lacquer artist. He was the son of Phan Kế Toại (1892–1973) who was the personal envoy to Tonkin of the last Emperor of Vietnam, Bảo Đại, the Minister of Home Affairs (1945-1955) and former deputy prime minister of North Vietnam from 1955-1973.

The Propeller Group cross-disciplinary media arts collective

The Propeller Group is a cross-disciplinary structure for creating art projects. The collective is headquartered in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and works in conjunction with creative individuals in Los Angeles, California, United States.

Bui Huu Hung is a Vietnamese artist who works primarily with lacquer.

Tiffany Chung is a Vietnamese American multimedia artist based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Nha San Collective is the first and longest-running, non-profit, artist-run space for experimental art that was realized in the political scene in Vietnam. It has been pioneer in facilitating an experimental art movement and in promoting contemporary culture.

Nguyen Phuong Linh is a Vietnamese born, Hanoi-based conceptual artist. Nguyen Phuong Linh's multidisciplinary practice spans installation, sculpture and video. Her work conveys the sense of the alienation, the dislocation and the ephemerality of human life.

Nguyen Manh Hung is a Vietnamese multidisciplinary artist based in Ho Chi Minh City.

Nguyen Huy An is a Vietnamese contemporary artist based in Hanoi.

Nguyen Trinh Thi is a Hanoi-based independent filmmaker, documentarian, and video artist. She is known for her layered, personal, and poetic approach to contentious histories and current events through experiments with the moving image. Regarded as one of the pioneers of her home country Vietnam's independent cinema, Thi is seen as the most notable video artist in Vietnam's contemporary art scene. She plays an important role in the country's cinema, with works shown in international festivals and exhibitions.

Việt Lê is an artist, writer, and curator. Lê is an Assistant Professor in Visual Studies | Visual & Critical Studies at California College of the Arts. He has been published in positions: Asia critique; Crab Orchard Review; American Quarterly; Amerasia Journal; Art Journal; and the anthologies Writing from the Perfume River; Strange Cargo; The Spaces Between Us; Modern and Contemporary Southeast Asian Art; among others.

Trần Tuấn Anh

Trần Tuấn Anh is a Vietnamese politician. His "native land" is Đức Phổ District, Quảng Ngãi Province. He is the Minister of Industry and Trade of Vietnam and a member of the National Assembly of Vietnam 14th term of 2016-2021 of the delegation of the National Assembly of Quảng Ngãi. He was the President of Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry, Vice Chairman of People's Committee of Cần Thơ City, Consul General of Vietnam in San Francisco.

Bang Nhat Linh is a Vietnamese contemporary artist based in Hanoi. His works are usually simple but multi-layered, dreamy and humane. They reflect the surveys into the depths of the psychological spaces, memories, history, submerged and of the oblivion in which "war memorabilia are removed from their original contexts to be placed within another context, or positioned in a relationship with human as communicable and interactive objects.

Phạm Thanh Tâm was a Vietnamese journalist and war artist, who used the nom de plume Huỳnh Biếc. His career spanned the First Indochina War as a Việt Minh soldier participating in the resistance against French colonialism, as well as the Second Indochina War as a member of the People's Army of Vietnam against South Vietnam and the United States.

Thảo Nguyên Phan is a visual multimedia artist whose practice encompasses painting, film-making and installation. She currently lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City and has exhibited widely in Vietnam and abroad. Drawing inspiration from both official and unofficial histories, Thảo Nguyên Phan draws on her country's turbulent past while observing ambiguous issues in social convention, history and tradition. She has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Vietnam and abroad, at many public institutions including the Factory Contemporary Art Centre, Ho Chi Minh City; Nha San Collective, Hanoi; Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai; Times Art Center in Berlin, Timișoara; and The Mistake Room, Los Angeles, CA.

Mai Thuc

Mai Thuc was a Vietnamese writer and journalist, who was most known for her works on Vietnam history, its people, and culture. She was the Editor-in-chief of Hanoi Women's Newspaper (1995-2003) and later in her retirement years a part-time lecturer in Hanoi Culturology at Thang Long University, Hanoi.

References

  1. ↑ "TUAN MAMI - Skylines With Flying People". Skylines With Flying People.
  2. ↑ "Sàn Art - Tuấn Mami".
  3. ↑ vietnamnews. "Eclectic studio spaces inspire artists". Vietnam Breaking News.
  4. ↑ Interview with Tuan Mami - Framer Framed
  5. ↑ "투안 마미 TUAN Mami".
  6. ↑ tudiennhasan.com/2013/12/07/tuan-mami-2/
  7. ↑ "UTOPIA - Skylines With Flying People". Skylines With Flying People.
  8. ↑ art4d thailand. "art4d.asia".
  9. ↑ "Tuan Mami". Artist Pension Trust.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.