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A state of absence... Words out there - January 30, 2022 December 17, 2021 Trương Công Tùng We are here, right in the presence of things being seen, being heard, being known, and right in your imagination... A state of absence... Words out there. This can be interpreted as transfiguration of a land, a river, a forest, as a change in the scenery, a portrait, and as a metamorphosis of an insect, an animal, or a community. The concept of ‘absence’ propounded here concatenates various states of ‘non-appearance’ of the natural world connecting with how it became non-present in the human mindset and the social behaviours of everyday life. This work is a collaboration between living beings, natural substances like: plants, insects, earth, water, the souls.. and the elements commonly labelled man-made, such as: engines, motors, the camera, electric lights.. Throughout this whole process, the human involvement is merely an intermediary role, serving as a link or a conveyor, that assists the probabilities of operation for both natural and artificial elements. By this installation, the artist, once again goes through that passage, just like many times before - the passage between life and death, between waking and dreaming, between sanity and madness, reality and illusion, between insect and human, between the earth and skin and flesh, between forest canopies and bare hills, between the lost lands and perished states, between nameless places and unknown destinations,...In a move to have a grasp of the subject matter, to create a depiction, to reiterate the words which could not be precisely heard, wholly sensed and fully comprehended just by passing only once; after all, there will be another chance for us to listen, to look into their words, tune in to their thoughts, their souls and their sadness. Words out there, a harmony between machine, nature and human beings, or rather a confession of the conversion and rebirth of beings which were not, are not, and would not become human at all. ARTWORKS GALLERY OPENING NIGHT See more about artist(s)

THE BROKEN CHAPTERS - January 26, 2014 January 5, 2014 Nguyễn Trần Nam The exhibition space, bare and colorless. A video of a bullet ripping through the air, looped and muted. Texts describing the very moment before, during and after one is executed, detailed and handwritten. A home video of a father and son bonding moment, found and slowed down. A group photograph of young men, smiling and almost washed out. A conversations between a father and his son, absurd and mounted on the walls. These are part of THE BROKEN CHAPTHERS, a showcase of new artworks by Nguyen Tran Nam taking place at manzi art space from 06 to 26 January 2014. Rooted in the stories of his own, but reaching out to tell the stories of others, Nam’s work is personal yet universal, dealing with themes such as violence, death and the father and son relationship. Using the notion of war as a backdrop, Nam offers a perspective on how ideologies and beliefs could shape a generation’s identity and perception, whilst demonstrating the gaps, the missing pieces and the powerful bonds between one generation and another, regardless of how isolated or far-removed they are – or desire to be – from each other. With a recurring interest in war novels and film, and inspired by his father’s experiences as a military engineer during the Vietnam-America war and later as a propaganda painter, the artist took on the role of both a memory excavator and a fiction storyteller, weaving real-life details with made-up stories to form an imaginary realm unbound by truth, place or time. This exhibition is supported by the Prince Claus Fund ARTWORKS GALLERY WHOLE AGAIN An exhibition review by curator Bill Nguyen A collection of writings, videos and discovered objects, Nguyen Tran Nam’s new body of work – THE BROKEN CHAPTERS is personal yet universal, rooted in the stories of his own, but reaching out to tell the stories of others, dealing with themes such as violence, death and the father and son relationship. Using the notion of war as a backdrop, Nam offers a perspective on how ideologies and beliefs shape a generation’s identity and perception, whilst demonstrating the gaps, the missing pieces and the powerful bonds between one generation and another, regardless of how isolated or far-removed they are – or desire to be – from each other. With a recurring interest in war novels and film, and inspired by his father’s experiences as a military engineer during the Vietnam-American war and later as a propaganda painter, the artist took on the role of both a memory excavator and a fiction writer, weaving real-life details with made-up stories to form an imaginary realm unbound by truth, place or time. Arranged sporadically on the two floors of the exhibition space like chapters from a distorted novel, each separate work is part of a larger narrative that asks the viewer to avoid leisurely contemplation, and invites them to go out of their usual way in order to figure their own story and relationship with the works. Dry to the point of challenging, the visual elements seem to have been intentionally watered down in order to amplify the work’s content and context. The show-opener is a pixilated home video, which looks as if it has been downloaded off one’s personal account on Youtube or Facebook, slowed down and played continuously on a monitor placed on the floor. Depicting a shooting lesson between a father and his little son, the video shows an odd male and father/son bonding moment - deeply affectionate, yet at the same time, violently dysfunctional. The importance of fathers spending time with their sons is immense; and the relationship a boy has with his father greatly shapes the man he will become in the future. What will become of this boy? A killing-machine? Or a future provider of protection and safety? Could this act of learning how to fire a gun be considered a fundamental rite of passage from boyhood to manhood? Or a form of child abuse?What does this tell us about our values and our cultures? Should gun shooting, or to be more exact - violence, be accepted as a solution during this politically unstable time? Or could too much freedom and democracy prove to be a problem? Spanning the main walls and resembling official documents or awards certificates, the second work consists of thirteen handwritten texts and an old photograph, all pristinely framed and neatly hung in a straight line. On closer inspection, a chill runs down our spines as we realize what our eyes are reading. All of the thirteen extracts of texts recount the very moment before, during and after one is executed – those fleeting seconds between life and the end of it. Adopting multiple styles of writings - sometimes descriptive and poetic, others incomplete and long-winded, the texts are both haunted and haunting, telling tales of thirteen deaths, thirteen possible killing methods, and thirteen different viewpoints. From those who perform the ultimate act, those who partake in the process, to those who lie at the receiving end of death; from wet tropical forests with muddy ponds, to desolate landscape where nothing survives but the ranging sun, we get the sense that the characters are involved a battle, a war. And it could be any battle, any war, at any place and any time; it could be happening right now, or was it hundreds of years ago, or it may occur at some point in the future. Whether it is a war of loss or victory, a battle of gore or glory, it ultimately all ends with fatality. Someone must die– be they a hero or a villain, be they one of “us” or one of “them”. All of these deaths go back to the starting point, where the small washed out black and white photograph of a group of young men is hung. Who are they? Friends? Colleagues? Comrades? Or is it more accurate to ask, who were they? There is more confusion: there are only eleven men in the photograph; where are the other two? Why are they missing? Could one of them be the protagonist in the painting beside it? The only painting in the show, this is the single artwork and material that can be considered traditional, and probably the closet thing to Nam’s training as a painter. Modest in size and minimal in its use of colors, the painting is oddly composited and coldly toned. With the empty center painted in black, the scene is divided into two parts: at the top a cloud is floating by, or maybe frozen still; down at the bottom a man, or maybe a woman, is lying, half of the face buried in green water, the other half looking straight at us, unemotional, or maybe contented. As we are absorbed in the painting’s strangeness and gloom, the same character and scenery - or maybe their doppelgangers – appear in perhaps the second part of the work, a video located upstairs. Slowly, the immobile moves; quietly, the dead breathes; peculiarly, silence is replaced by the last sounds of a living human being. As the painting comes alive and drips of blood fall out of the character’s mouth, an all-encompassing uncanny sensation begins to resonate inside our body and throughout the space. We feel horrified and disoriented, but also energized and compelled by the disturbance and mystery of what we are witnessing: a person approaching death. How did he die? Was he murdered? Or did he commit suicide? How did his story unfold? These questions continue to linger in our minds, only to be confronted by the emptiness apparent in the last room. On one wall is a looped video projection of a bullet ripping through the air. Dark and sinister, echoing the show’s subject matters, these two instruments of death – the gun and the bullet – are referenced all the way through: each bullet fired in the opening video is filled with pride and joy; technical drawings of gun parts faintly decorate the paper onto which the thirteen deaths are written; a gunshot probably killed the protagonist in the painting-video duo piece; a bullet wound is debated between a father and his son in the text-based wall piece as part of the last work in this room. Written in an instinctive and stream-of-consciousness manner, the conversation surrounds the notions of victory, reason and value; and alludes to the differences and struggles between the father and the son, the old and the new, the emotionally imbalanced and the cold-heartedly rational. Will these two opposing worlds ever meet? Could their relationship, one connected by blood, ever help resolve the disharmony? With THE BROKEN CHAPTERS , Nguyen Tran Nam attempts to walk away from the parameters of the visual to explore a territory entirely different to what he knows: the practice of writing. Why the change? It maybe that writing is the more powerful way to convey a cause, spread an idea and inspire hope; or that it better achives the social and political functions we normally expect of art; or that artists simply wish to expand the scope of their practice. Either way, Nam needs to go through this experimentation, to dive into the darkness in order to see the light. Some may say the final outcome is questionable and doubtful, others naive and unfinished. But there is one thing we can’t deny of Nam: that anything he has written and created, flows from that place - from the heart of an artist; from the heart of a son; from the heart of someone broken, wounded and lost. It is at this very instant that we connect with him, because at one point or another, we have all been broken, wounded and lost. And all we ever wanted was the impossible: to be whole again. OPENING NIGHT See more about artist(s)

An Nguyễn biography Born in 1987 and graduated from Hue University of Fine Art in 2012, An Nguyen is gaining attention as an emerging artist of a younger generation from central Vietnam. In An’s mind, an artist should experiment with various art forms instead of narrowing their practice to a specific one, hence his current experimentations with various media including painting, sculpture and installation. The artist wishes to convey a desire to seek out the characteristics of the colour coordination between humanity and nature, as well as the impact of habitat on individuals, and vice versa. An Nguyen has participated in some notable group exhibitions including ‘Dreamy Hue’- Newspace Arts Foundation, Hue – 2015; ‘Young Artists Festival’ - Hanoi – 2014; ‘Foehn’ - Tu Do Gallery, Ho Chi Minh City - 2014. works This artist currently has no available work at Manzi works [ ... ] AN NGUYỄN 2023 30 x 40 cm oil on Canson paper Enquire works [ ... ] AN NGUYỄN 2023 30 x 40 cm oil on Canson paper Enquire works Fragrant 1 AN NGUYỄN 2020 24 x 19.7 x 1.5 cm oil on cardbox Enquire works Water Mark 16 AN NGUYỄN 2015 29,7 x 42 cm water color and acrylic on paper Enquire works Water Mark 11 AN NGUYỄN 2015 29,7 x 42 cm water color and acrylic on paper Enquire works Water Mark 1 AN NGUYỄN 2015 29,7 x 42 cm water color and acrylic on paper Enquire works [ ... ] AN NGUYỄN 2023 30 x 40 cm oil on Canson paper Enquire works Food 1 AN NGUYỄN 2020 22 x 14 x 3.5 cm oil on carton & plastic box Enquire works Water Mark 18 AN NGUYỄN 2015 29,7 x 42 cm water color and acrylic on paper Enquire works Water Mark 13 AN NGUYỄN 2015 29,7 x 42 cm water color and acrylic on paper Enquire works Water Mark 9 AN NGUYỄN 2015 29,7 x 42 cm water color and acrylic on paper Enquire related what's going on at Manzi

Breeding Season - July 13, 2014 June 13, 2014 Thái Nhật Minh Inspired by the breeding season, during which living creatures grow enlivened, elated, enraptured, when all crave unification, procreation and seek an escape from sorrow and solitude, this new series by Thai Nhat Minh aspires to portray the connection between sculpture and abstract notions of landscape, time, and mentality. An intimate relationship - seemingly extraneous yet consistent between natural connections and those in contemporary life - one that remains clouded in everyone’s consciousness. * The show is part of manzi art programme supported by the Cultural Development and Exchange Fund (CDEF) of the Danish Embassy. ARTWORKS GALLERY OPENING NIGHT See more about artist(s)

VIETNAM’S ONLY AFFORDABLE ART FAIR ART FOR YOU IS A PLACE TO BUY AFFORDABLE ART ART FOR YOU is an art fair and showcase that is geared towards selling Art at prices the majority can afford, removing the sometimes-elitist nature of more traditional Art Gallery sales and create an event that is enjoyable, exciting and welcoming for those looking to pick up a bargain or just get some inspiration and discover new artists and their work. ​ ART FOR YOU is a collection of sketches, photographs, illustrations, paintings - works & ideas, mediums & meanings, questions & responses by some of the finest creative talents working in Vietnam today . ​ ART FOR YOU is a way to support your local artists (they deserve it) and keep creativity kicking. ART FOR YOU is a way to keep alternative art spaces open in Vietnam. ART FOR YOU is a place to discover something beautiful and engaging and give it a home. Art For You , the affordable art fair organised by Manzi Art Space and Work Room Four, has proudly reached its 16th edition. The fair will take place at Manzi Art Space - 14 Phan Huy Ich, Ba Dinh. Art For You was founded with the ambition to remunerate artists for their work and support independent art spaces in Hanoi. It is at this time more important than ever to consider how you can support your local artistic community by being a patron of the arts, no matter how small, our prices begin at $25 and are capped at $1500 to make this accessible for all. We hope you consider what an impact buying art from local practitioners can have. The Art For You objective remains as always is to exhibit, promote and sell high quality artwork made by artists living and working in Vietnam to a diverse audience at an attractive price point in an environment that is refreshing, contem porary and welcoming. ​ Art moves people, it brings hope, curiosity and aspiration. Over the course of the last 10 years Art For You has grown into an anticipated art event trusted by artists and audience alike. Art For You has consistently strived to nurture and develop a network of more than 150 artists showcasing over 400 pieces of Art in each fair. We aim to offer you a thoughtfully displayed and well curated selection of Vietnam’s most exciting talent and ensure that both seasoned and novice buyers of art find something extraordinary to take home. ART FOR YOU 16 30 Nov – 10 Dec 2023 9.30AM - 8.00PM everyday Manzi Art Space, 14 Phan Huy Ích, Ba Đình Free Admission WORLDWIDE SEE MORE OF MANZI Manzi Art Space, Cafe & Art Shop 14 Phan Huy Ích, Ba Đình, Hanoi Manzi Exhibition Space 2 Ngõ Hàng Bún, Ba Đinh, Hanoi Submit

Hanoi 1985 - 2015, In The Years Of Forgetting - May 20, 2023 April 26, 2023 William Crawford 18 street life photos taken from 1985-2015 by William Crawford. William Crawford was one of the first photographers to gain access to postwar Vietnam in 1985 and he continued to return at regular intervals for a period of thirty years. As an American witnessing the devastation and sorrow of war he was compelled to show the humanity that coexists with deep suffering. Sensitive to the subtle nuances of everyday life and the customs of the people in this exotic land, he documented the life of the Vietnamese as it evolved over three decades. The artist became entranced with the streets of the old quarter in Hanoi which revealed all manner of arts and crafts and the traditional lifestyles of the Vietnamese. Revisiting the same sites repeatedly gave the artist entrée into intimate moments in time as the country shifted from a post war mentality struggling to advance to a thriving metropolis emerging as a model for economic growth in SE Asia. As he worked over the years the photographer formed friendships with the local people as they went about their daily lives. With the years passing over 3 decades, his photos became a diary of one man’s efforts to reconcile with the past and heal the wounds of war with the simple humanity of acknowledging the dignity of the human spirit. Tender intimate moments in life, a bodybuilder toning his physique, young men sharing confidences over a cup of tea, the beauty of a dedicated altar honoring all that came before, become testimony to the strength of the human spirit and the ability to overcome great adversity with compassion, love, and insight. All of the photos were shot on film which also highlights the transition of a time-honored medium that makes way for the digital age, just as the landscape of the city itself must make way and yield to the current times. Suzanne Lecht ARTWORKS GALLERY OPENING NIGHT See more about artist(s)

no-think - December 5, 2022 November 17, 2022 Nguyễn Văn Phúc Originated from an unrealized series of installations ten years ago that Phúc had fully formed idea about, ‘no-think’ when comes into being at manzi this month, is an interplay of the physical presence and the re-appearance of what -used -to- exist-and-archived: A bottle of penicillin filled with tears A reptile animal A flying strip of fabric tied with a knot A painting made of scorched rice A man running on a blooming field of yellow flowers A man perching on a loofah pergola A man lying on a blossom bush A ring on the floor formed by buffalo dung Such an overload of visual materials on disparate forms, ‘No-Think’ offers a space crammed full with images. They collide, or more accurately pushing down and simultaneously lifting up, interrupting while harmonizing & backing each other. The audience gets struck by a great amount of visual information and an overwhelming force inherent therein that directly attacks their senses. Though being perceived, this visual data is seemingly unable to be processed, obviously incomprehensible due to its absurdity and lack of coherence. Rejecting any logical connection or cohesiveness, the visual fragments featuring in ‘No-Think’ are nevertheless authentic and original as Nguyễn Văn Phúc “...did not aim to question their origins, but rather to perceive and keep them in one’s own limited memory”. As if an effort to catch some random images popping into our heads or to summon fleeting shadows in a dream. From this perspective, the immateriality of our subconscious mind has been materialized in Nguyễn Văn Phúc’s installations, with a distinct structure composed of aggressiveness along with playfulness, roughness mixing into delicacy. By that way, ‘No-Think’, though saturated with its visual indulgence, is not a spectacular superficial parade. Neither is a cunning disguise concealing an internal shallowness nor a tactfully strategic formation striving for a defined goal. The intensity and purity of visual perceptions as well as physical sensation are confronted with the (active) emptiness of thoughts. Such juxtaposition of body & mind in ‘No-Think’ provokes the transparency closing to mindfulness - a mental state in the insight meditation. When thinking is insignificant and futile; when any labels/beliefs/concepts, … all abstract forms that often shadow our view of things have all been eliminated, in such cases where shall we be led to? Can it be close to the truth itself, as Phúc expects: “[...] I make no attempt to protest against or intentionally diverge from the movement of postmodern art which centers on the concept; instead, my approach is simply based on my own living experiences, and as I believe it offers me a way to come to the truth.” “No-Think” marks an end of twelve-year -(half) absence of Phuc from the local art scene and excitingly opens up a brand new chapter of his art practice. ARTWORKS GALLERY ARTIST'S STATEMENT An artwork that is merely an image, without any thinking and concept. Long time ago, back in 2012 or so, I had a plan to do an installation featuring images that I had envisioned and kept in my mind. Time passed by, then somehow I did put a stop to thinking about them. Now, I want to put those specific images into being, display them in a physical space - a presence of the fragmented and logically incoherent images. Due to an unfavorable situation at that time, I could not realize my idea. However, ever since then, those images have been preserved perfectly in my mind; until this year when I chanced upon an invitation from Manzi, encouraging me to do a solo show at their exhibition space; I decided to let it take its own course and chose to display my unrealized project ten years ago. I know that anything that occurs in our minds, the whole of our thoughts and mental visualizations, do not exist by accident, without any particular cause. In fact, they either stem from our past obsessions and traumas, appear as an inevitable consequence, (from the point of view of Psychoanalysis) or emanate from forgotten memories of our past lives (in the explanation of Buddhism). Nevertheless, I did not aim to question their origins, but rather to merely perceive them, and keep them in my own limited memory. There was a period of time when I found myself coming into a dead end and lost in a search for the meaning or the core essence of the problems in my own life. Overthinking to no avail, I put a stop to the thinking itself. I started engaging in some practices of ‘no-think’ that cultivates an empty state of mind, for example, watching the ripples on the lake’s surface for hours, looking at a burning flame, or examining the leaves stirred high on a tree without having any thoughts. I applied the same technique in conversations with other people. At the moment I realized that I could not follow what they were talking about, I would turn my focus to their gestures, their attitudes, their mental states. That’s also my personal way to connect with others. Regarding my new installation, I make no attempt to protest against or intentionally diverge from the movement of postmodern and contemporary art which centers on the concept; instead, my approach is simply based on my own living experiences, and as I believe it offers me a way to come to the truth.” - Nguyễn Văn Phúc, Hanoi, October 2022 ____________________________________ SOME THOUGHTS ON 'NO-THINK' A dialogue between Nguyễn Như Huy (a thinker) and artist Nguyễn Văn Phúc about Phúc's new series of installations titled 'no-think' 1. First of all, let’s imagine a scene like this: There was a baby not talking yet. One day, when the family was gathering around, this baby suddenly pointed to a chair. All members of that family then looked at each other, trying to guess what the toddler wanted. The father said, “Maybe he wants to sit on the chair.” The mother disagreed, “No, he does not know how to sit on the chair yet. Probably, he thinks that the chair is a walking pet.” The sister laughed out loud, “I don’t think so. He just wants to go through the chair, so he is asking us to put the chair away.” The toddler’s grandparents just shook their heads, smiled and explained, “You are all wrong, he is implying that many ministers only know how to keep their “chairs” rather than how to do their jobs well.” The family went on arguing until bedtime. Everybody was frustrated because there was no way to know for sure what the toddler meant when he pointed to the chair. What did he actually mean then? >>> CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING OPENING NIGHT See more about artist(s)

Tập 4 . Phần thứ nhất 'Đêm tuyết' Đóng hộp một khoảnh khắc trong không gian triển lãm, ‘Đêm Tuyết’ không có tuyến tính, hay đúng hơn là KHÔNG THỂ có chút nào vận động thời gian. Ở một bên tường, bốn lớ p cảnh được trình hiện như những lát cắt của một khoảnh khắc duy nhất được kể đi kể lại, từ nhiều góc độ. Các tình huống đồng hiện , xen vào giữa những khoảng hoặc RỖNG hoặc IM hoặc LẶNG: Một người đàn ông nằm ngoài trời tuyết; Một con quái vật trong hang động; Một tay súng và Một kiếm sĩ trước cửa hang; ... Các nhân vật với số phận oái oăm bị trói vào lẫn nhau, đang yên lặng chờ đợi và buộc phải chờ đợi. Mở đầu đã được trình bày, kết thúc dường như mở sẵn, làm sao đi từ mở đầu đến kết thúc, những mối nhân-quả cũng được giải thích rõ ràng; nhưng tất cả hoàn toàn phi logic và bất khả. Ngoài việc nối với nhau như một vòng lặp khép hờ của một mảnh thời gian bị đông cứng, không một diễn biến nào khác là có thể. Ở phía tường còn lại, đối lập với sự đứt gãy và không thể tiếp tục ấy là một loạt những vụn hình khác, ghi lại các sự vật và sự việc độc lập: " quả bí, súng, con chó, cây kim, bóng đè, ngọn giáo... .". Tất cả từ chối áp đặt một trật tự thứ bậc về kết cấu và kiến trúc, nhưng kỳ lạ là vẫn vang vọng lẫn nhau. Chúng chẳng tuân theo cái gì hết, không một quy luật nào, không một sự xâu chuỗi nào hoàn toàn vừa vặn. Và nhất là, dường như chúng cũng không tuân theo chính tác giả của chúng. Có thể khởi phát từ một xúc động nhất thời, một kích thích ngẫu hứng (chẳng hạn một hình ảnh nhớ lại từ trong mơ, một giai điệu đột nhiên lọt tai và kẹt lại trong tâm trí): Cái “duyên” mở đầu, rồi mọi thứ tự nhập lưu và nhào nặn. Dẫu mượn một cảnh huống nghịch lý (nhưng không cải trang ngụ ngôn, cũng không khoa trương nặng màu bi kịch) làm khung ráp để nối lại toàn bộ tập 4 của chuỗi tác phẩm lần này, nghệ sĩ chẳng hề cố ý dấy lên những hoài nghi hiện sinh chua cay, hay khơi gợi những hoang mang u uẩn về số phận và bản thể con người. Khước từ việc ‘TÌ M KIẾM’ , anh chỉ đơn giản là ‘NHÌN & THẤY’ , ‘NHẶT L ÊN’ , mời tất cả cùng thưởng thức. "Cây ra trái, trái chín, chín rồi rụng. Tôi nhặt lấy vài tr ái và tạm gọi chúng là: Trên con đường c ủa chúng ta." ​ < Giới thiệu của nghệ sĩ về chuỗi tác phẩm trên trang web của dự án> Có lẽ vì vậy mà ‘Đêm tuyết’ (và toàn bộ Tập 4) dẫu có những yếu tố huyễn tưởng dày đặc, đậm mùi và vị riêng, lại không được dọn lên theo kiểu nóng hôi hổi rồi tàn nguội nhanh để ta có thể chóng xơi và tấm tắc gật gù. Lối sắp đặt đa kênh với những khoảng trống duỗi dài không phải nhằm dàn dựng cho một cú kết mãnh liệt bàng hoàng, ngay lập tức bùng nổ những sóng rung tới giác quan và xung thần kinh nơi não bộ. Trái lại, ta phải chờ đợi những tín hiệu khác: giữa nhịp điệu triền miên màu xám xịt, rất khẽ có những xúc cảm đơn lẻ bật rung đâu đó giữa các hình ảnh và lớp cảnh. Một tính thơ của ngẫu nhiên và bất trắc. Lê Xuân Tiến sử dụng đa dạng các chất liệu theo kiểu cắt dán (collage): các đoạn ghi hình gốc (được quay lại từ những chủ động sắp đặt hoặc vô tình bắt gặp), hoạt hình vẽ tay, thêm cả những dữ liệu góp nhặt từ truyện tranh, trò chơi điện tử, các lưu trữ ảnh và phim tư liệu tìm thấy trên internet… Ngồn ngộn các thông tin thị giác, tất cả có vẻ còn thô ráp ấy thế mà tổng hòa lại mượt mà lạ lùng, dù chẳng hề yên ả. Chỗ này chỗ kia sẽ có những gợn lên bất chợt của xúc cảm lạc điệu, chẳng qua cũng như những dấu ngắt quãng ngắn ngủi hay những vết cắt nhỏ. Vết cắt này rất nông, chỉ đủ cứa xước bề mặt kiềm tỏa phẳng lì của dải đơn sắc tịch mịch và âm thanh êm ro. Vết cứa quá yếu ớt… Vậy nhưng trong vòng lặp không ngừng của các đoạn băng, khi mắt nhìn đã quen và bóng tối nhạt dần, khi tai nghe đã thuận và âm thanh (như thể đêm tuyết cuồng nộ) kia không còn chút uy hiếp nào nữa, trong sự loãng dần của thời-không ấy, cảm giác về những vết cắt âm ỉ này cứ mạnh dần lên, khuếch đại từng chút một, đến một lúc nào đó sẽ đủ để ta giật mình xuýt xoa còn ý thức bị đánh lạc hướng. Yếu tố câm - Yếu tố nhìn thấy - Yếu tố đọc thấy (cấu thành ngôn ngữ hình ảnh mà ý thức ta thường neo đậu vào) trong ‘Đêm tuyết’ cũng như toàn bộ Tập 4 dường như rất rời rạc và hỗn độn, kháng cự những nỗ lực xâu chuỗi và thống nhất. Những chỉ dấu cho lý trí vì vậy dần mơ hồ và sự chuyên chế của ý thức dễ dàng buông lỏng. Phải chăng khi đó, tâm trí ta sẽ chuẩn bị đạt tới những quan sát thuần khiết hơn, và chiêm nghiệm rồi cũng đến, tự nhiên và bình thản. Không đòi hỏi một hoàn tất hay khẩn cầu xác định; chỉ đơn giản là: “Vì ta giống như đất xanh chờ tuyết Và tuyết chờ băng tan.” - Paul Ernst (Brunhild) Tập 4 . Phần thứ hai Ngày nắng Sunny day 'Đêm tuyết' sẽ tắt hẳn sau 19 giờ ngày 30 tháng 9. Tới ngày hôm sau, 'Ngày nắng' thế chỗ, nhưng không phải là một sự tiếp nối. ​ Một khả thể khác, độc lập & đối lập (?) ​ Thay vì một khoảnh khắc bị cô đặc lại như 'Đêm tuyết', kéo giãn & lặp lại từ ngày này sáng tuần khác; 'Ngày nắng' là một phim ngắn - thời lượng trình chiếu chỉ khoảng 30 phút, giới hạn trong một buổi chiếu duy nhất; nhưng có trình tự và diễn biến - một cuộc miên trường điên rồ của đủ mọi giấc mơ và nỗi ám ảnh, với những vào ra không ngừng, những lật mở nơi chốn kỳ dị ​ CĂN PHÒNG XA LẠ .... CĂN PHÒNG THÂN THUỘC ​ Cá thể tự tách ra và tự nhân lên thành vô số dạng thức tâm thần / bản thể ​ ... ​ Điểm cuối của cuộc hành trình, sau hết thảy những đêm tuyết và ngày nắng, liệu có thể thấy được chút nào hay chăng? 15 giờ 30 phút 01 tháng 10 FINALE Đăng ký FINALE Về đợt mở xưởng 'Trên con đường của chúng ta'

</3 - May 19, 2024 April 20, 2024 Hà Đào </3 - an open studio by Ha Dao , a photographer, writer and programme coordinator at Matca. </3 introduces works grounded in real tragedies learned through the press and social media. As media sensations, both stories feature a female outlaw as the protagonist. Amassing two uncommon fates, </3 deals with romance, heartbreak and crime in Vietnam's recent past. Entrenched are her ongoing inquiries into the creative and ethical implications of the camera, or more specifically, of appropriating stories not of one's own. __________________ Juggling with a variety of visual information (photographs, audio recordings, video footages, found and reconstructed materials), in this open studio, Hà proposes A NARRATIVE CONTEXT in which the pure function endowed in the photography almost proved futile: the large volume of visual statement is exposed, the voice of knowledge is clear and directly perceived without any filter, vivid details constitute the very raw material of ‘that-has-been’ yet at the same time can very well say nothing at all, as what represented can be immediately yielded to our perception but extremely elusive once one aims to process them to grasp the whole story. Such interesting narrative context, in turn, provokes questions about what was not allowed/impossible to be represented, about the "blind field "- parts of the scene outside the frame, and reiterates an often overlooked issue of our age which is unfailingly manipulated by mass consumption of information and social media: every photograph/recording only tells a part of the story. The pursuit of truth (in terms of informational aspect ) is impossible here, </3 , however, invites us - in a role of SPECTATOR to embark on a journey of exploring the 'sentimental’ reasons which interested Roland Barthes: 'I want to explore it not as a Question or a Theme but as a Wound: I see, I feel, hence I notice, I observe and I think. " (Camera Lucida) Artist's website: ha-dao.com ARTWORKS GALLERY All things considered (2019) This body of works is based on a murder case in Bình Dương in 2017. The so-called crime of passion made national headlines because of its grotesque yet compelling details. Out of jealousy and in selfdefense, a woman named Hàng Thị Hồng Diễm killed her husband and dismembered his body at their home in a factory worker dormitory. She recounted what happened on that fateful night during the four-hour trial. I was drawn to the discrepancy between the graphic description and deadpan photographic documentation in news reports: captioned as the crime scene, a seemingly innocent street corner, trash cans, and home interiors took on new meanings, providing evidence for the incident without witnesses. Adopting the role of a private investigator as if in a twisted game, I set out to capture observed and staged situations in various locations in Bình Dương. Combining audio excerpted from the trial, this work endeavors to recreate the incident based on the testimony of the woman/convict. ___________ If Heaven Awaits (2024) The video work portrays the Hải Phòng born and bred Dung Hà (Vũ Hoàng Dung) , a notorious gangster who used to monopolize gambling sites, adopt a masculine appearance and openly date women.Together with illegal activities, her sexuality was the subject of discussion and ridicule in the public eye. She was shot point-blank by her rival in the year 2000; the assassination shook Vietnam’s underworld. A fictional rendezvous between the long-gone Dung Hà and her old flame, rumored to be her one true love, plays out along the 2000s pop ballad 'Đêm Nay Anh Mơ Về Em (“Dreaming of You Tonight”). Adopting the aesthetic of music videos from this era, the work centers lesbian longing and butch/transmasculine expressions against the backdrop of heteronormative pop culture. Confronted by the distance of time and the impossibility of knowing, I turn to imagination as a strategy to construct stories about the price of love intertwined with battles for survival. Imagination also offers a certain freedom to explore and resurface fragments of memories that have been either lost or silenced. And yet while delving into intellectual musings and grappling with my own doubts about what images can and should do, I find myself returning to the question: How much could we know about the lives of others? OPENING NIGHT See more about artist(s)

HOMELANDS - December 7, 2013 December 2, 2013 Landscape Quartet & Nguyễn Thanh Thủy n the beginning of September 2013, the ‘Đàn tranh’ player Nguyễn Thanh Thủy went to Ngang Nội in the Bắc Ninh Province with Stefan Östersjö and Matthew Sansom from the Landscape Quartet. With a wish to revisit sites known from childhood and interact with the soundscape of the present day the three musicians worked up on the mountains around the village and on the rice fields. The two works presented at Manzi’s in Ddecember draw on material from both settings. In the rice fields where Thủy used to work as a child and catch grasshoppers to grill in the night, Thủy put her đàn tranh upside down to let the rice play it. Up on the mountain, Stefan Östersjö stringed his đàn đáy to three trees and played the instrument together with the wind in the trees. The installations at Manzi’s created by Matthew Sansom and Stefan Östersjö aim at capturing the complexity of the interactions between the musicians and the landscape and of the intense sonorities of the Vietnamese countryside. This event is manzi art space's program in collaboration with DomDom as part of the Hanoi New Music Festival 2013 ( https://www.facebook.com/events/646414622047931 ) and is supported by the Cultural Development and Exchange Fund (CDEF). ARTWORKS GALLERY OPENING NIGHT See more about artist(s)

Summer Grasses - November 5, 2018 October 20, 2018 Bàng Nhất Linh “Summer grasses, All that remains Of soldiers' dreams” - Basho This is the 6th project and 5th solo show by Linh. After the show in Hanoi, the work is to be exhibited in Saigon, as a part of a dual exhibition - a collaboration of Bang Nhat Linh and Wu Chi-Tsung - a Taiwanese artist, hosted by MotPlus(*) ‘Summer grasses’ is Linh’s most recent work - an installation artwork which revisits and references his previous unexhibited work - ‘Hero’. ‘Hero’ created out from 2010 to 2012 was inspired by the famous naval Battle of Bach Dang - one of the greatest victories in Vietnamese war history. The artwork focuses on a large 8.5m model which was created to be just as a fragment from a Chinese battleship would appear, hanging suspended on wooden stakes, to evoke an illusion for the viewer of standing in the river bed. However, the project remained created yet unexhibited for many reasons and has existed in creation and concept for the artist alone. The installation illuminates the famous poem entitled ‘Nam Quốc Sơn Hà’ - The Country in the South (**) written in light and shadow, whilst we observe a forsaken project, through the objects shown and seen, though seemingly common and natural at first glance they repose within a situational irony...stories within stories… all set in idyllic surroundings filled and juxtaposed with a rhythmic yet melancholy atmosphere – as in their namesake Haiku poem by Basho. *‘Nam Quốc Sơn Hà’ - ‘The Country in the South’ (Chinese characters: 南國山河): This anonymous poem is one of the best known literature pieces in Vietnamese history. Written in a form of classical Chinese poetry called seven-character-quatrain (a form of regulated verse with four lines of seven characters each), it is known as ‘The Very First Declaration of Vietnam’s Independence’. Legend describes that the poem was read aloud to divinities before and during battles to boost troops morale when Vietnam fought against the invasion from the North as long ago as the 10th Century AD. The show is part of Manzi's Art Programme supported by the Embassy of Denmark. ARTWORKS GALLERY OPENING NIGHT See more about artist(s)