Nguyễn Minh ThànhA solo exhibition by NGUYỄN MINH THÀNH 09.12.2017 - 08.01.2018 No & Meaning - January 8, 2018 December 9, 2017 Nguyễn Minh Thành In collaboration with Art Vietnam Gallery, manzi art space presents 'No & Meaning' - the solo show marking Minh Thanh's return after half a decade. Long known in the art community for his thoughtful, introspective musings of self, Thanh presents his life in all its simplicity and honesty. After 10 years of seclusion living a solitary, meditative life in the hillside of Dalat, Thanh has reduced his art to a simple expression of his happiness. As the artists says, "Before, when the beauty appears, I feel happy. Now, when I am happy, the beauty appears". ARTWORKS GALLERY ARTIST STATEMENT --- "No " means nothing. "Meaning " means there is something that could be understood in our mind. In the world of thought, the word "no" has almost no value. If we put these two words together, we have a word that most people are afraid of: "no meaning" or "meaningless". People only care about meaningful words, something that makes sense....but in the world of beauty, it's different, the beauty is transferred to our eyes by space. The word "no", besides the negative or denial meaning, also means "space". If there is no space, there is truly nothing then. Then we also can say that we can only feel the true beauty when there is nothing happening in our mind. For a period of time, I practiced observing my thoughts and realized that most of them were trash. Then I let them go. They were truly my sorrow and the very thoughts which were meaningless while I misled myself from one thought to another. Certainly while I am writing this down I have to think, thanks for that! Life will be much more beautiful if we only use our thinking when it is truly necessary. Recently in my paintings, I paint whatever I feel like, no subject, no idea, no concept, no idealism... I paint as if I am learning how to paint. Before, when the beauty appears, I feel happy. Now, when I am happy, the beauty appears. The reason for this difference is that my mind was occupied too much by my thoughts. Thinking and ideas are the very things that make our life complicated and also ruin Art. Visual art now is corrupted because of too much thought. I overheard that Friedrich Nietzsche once said: "you have a purpose, but if you are disabled, even if you can reach your purpose, you are still disabled". Our civilization now is disabled, because most people are living by their thoughts and so few people realize that. Meaning belongs to our thoughts, but beauty doesn't, it belongs to our eyes and our hearts. People are magnifying their thoughts bigger and bigger and then they forget their senses. If life becomes meaningless, it will be so terrifying. But if people know how to let go of their thoughts, that frightfulness will be gone. We will have a life as it should be as itself or as it is, with no dilemma of what is so called meaning or meaningless. And that is life, which is full of feeling, full of love and simplicity. Then our wisdom will grow, then people will have enough energy to be able to step forward and reach beyond the limit of time and matter. That is what I see and I wish my paintings will be seen in that way. - Nguyễn Minh Thành - December 2017 OPENING NIGHT See more about artist(s)

Titled ‘In spaces of everyscape, at time without end’, his fourth showcase at manzi and his first-ever body of painting using dzo paper as the main medium will present a catalogue of situations. Some of them are common and familiar in his art world, but the majority of other scenarios are quite new and uninvestigated. VUI LÒNG CHỌN NGÔN NGỮ Tiếng Việt CHOOSE THE LANGUAGE English

Lê Giang & Lê Hoàng Bích PhượngA duo show by LÊ GIANG & LÊ HOÀNG BÍCH PHƯỢNG 02.03 - 15.03.2014 Above Under Sky - March 15, 2014 March 2, 2014 Lê Giang & Lê Hoàng Bích Phượng Including a series of simple but intriguing installations and drawings, ‘Above Under Sky’ by visual artists Lê Giang (Hanoi) and Lê Hoàng Bích Phượng (HCMC) transformed the space of manzi, urging the audience to find out the real layers hidden behind every single artworks. Slightly different from her previous artworks which were deftly painted in subtle watercolours tones, this time, Lê Hoàng Bích Phượng brings us her latest creations in human shapes - all are vague, colourless but reflecting the insentience of mankind. In connection to Phượng's, Lê Giang’s artwork is also an exploration into the multi-layers of personal conflicts, to find out the answer for her question “What is a perfect world?” Using the hole as symbol of an entrance to another world, Giang has tried to create an imaginary realm within the everyday, to make possible the utopian. *This event is supported by the Prince Claus Fund & the Cultural Development and Exchange Fund (CDEF) of the Danish Embassy. ARTWORKS GALLERY OPENING NIGHT See more about artist(s)

AP Nguyễnan installation by AP Nguyễn Lovecore - November 25, 2021 October 29, 2021 AP Nguyễn Lovecore An installation by AP Nguyễn, the participating artist of Manzi’s 2020 Artist Residency Program Curated by Bill Nguyễn … “Look at this trove Treasures untold How many wonders can one cavern hold? Looking around here you'd think Sure, she's got everything” And so it goes, one of The Little Mermaid's most memorable moments, where we see Princess Ariel swirl around in her secret grotto, excitedly singing about the mundane objects she has collected during her exploration of shipwrecks and caves under the sea - objects that perhaps have been discarded, lost or forgotten by those living above the surface of water. In the exhibition ‘Lovecore’ by artist AP Nguyễn, a similar sense of sweetness and strangeness, of wonder and puzzlement, emerges. For here, the artist also welcomes us into her personal treasure trove which has been accumulated over the years, and openly displays - for our viewing pleasure - the objects of her own desires and dreams, in all their brilliance, vulnerability, and honesty. Hòn non bộ. Áo dài. Hạ Long Bay. Picture frame. Bikini bottoms. Karaoke. ‘Việt Nam Quê Hương Tôi’. Appearing in this exhibition are but a few objects, phrases and images (or rather, subjects of enquiry), selected from AP’s ongoing project which started in 2017 when the artist left Vietnam to study and live abroad. Embracing her position as someone twin-cultured, having always been fascinated by both the kitsch and camp (*), and to all things “quintessentially Vietnamese” (**), AP makes art that takes inspiration from, brings together, and at times, sits uncomfortably between personal memories and public imagination. Borrowing from popular cultural phenomenon, utilizing the aesthetic of mass-produced souvenirs, as well as their well-known and over-exhausted iconography, AP playfully subverts the conventions and expectation of such objects and images - by altering their properties and functions, or by weaving in her autobiographical reflections and experiences. Thus, her work teases with what we think we know. ============================================= (*) Traditionally, kitsch is associated with Western culture, especially with the post-industrial revolution when society started to grow affluent and more people had more time for entertainment and recreation. As “cheap imitations, humble religious art objects, vulgar souvenirs, and kinky antiques”, kitsch is mass-produced, faking up and combining stylistic conventions of vastly different periods, countries and cultures. Often used as mere ostentatious decoration, kitsch is popularized and adored by many because of its accessibility, affordability and what scholar/critic Matei Călinescu referred to as “instant beauty” – pleasing to the eyes and easy to understand. Often hard to distinguish from kitsch, camp “cultivates bad taste... as a form of superior refinement,” and is at times consciously used by artists to “subvert the conventions of a “good taste” that eventually leads to sclerosis of academicism.” For a detailed study of kitsch and camp, refer to Matei Călinescu’s book ‘Five Faces of Modernity: Modernism, Avant-garde, Decadence, Kitsch, Postmodernism’ (1977). Indiana: Indiana University Press, USA. (**) Taken from AP Nguyễn’s artist statement, November 2020. Here, the phrase “things quintessentially Vietnamese” refers to the ideas, images and locations that have come to symbolize an imagination of what constitutes ‘Vietnam’. They themselves have been turned into mass-produced souvenirs one collects as they go on holiday (i.e. keychain, fridge magnet, picture frame, postcard etc.), or interior decors one displays in their home. ARTWORKS GALLERY The title of the show refers to an Internet aesthetic (born out of TikTok, Instagram and Tumblr) that celebrates love and nostalgia, often incorporating the colors pink, red and white, and heart-shaped pattern, and is “based on the visual culture of manufactured romance and affection.” More info: https://aesthetics.fandom.com/wiki/Lovecore On the opposite of the spectrum is Hatecore (also known as Violencecore), an aesthetic that involves hatred, anger, heartbreak, violent imagery, and the feeling of rejection. ________________________________________________________________________ Crisscrossing the space, a group of small rock-like sculptures stand. Their translucent ceramic skin is coated in various shades of off white, brownish yellow, smoky blue, and pale purple, provoking a sense of frailty, sickness and decay. Inspired by the sites that have become symbols for Vietnamese tourism such as Hạ Long Bay or Ninh Bình, and by the long-standing local art form of hòn non bộ , this series of sculptures acts as portals through which we can look into AP’s private world. Originating millenniums ago, hòn non bộ is a miniature mountain and pond structure, a material representation of the locals’ imagination of the universe and their respect towards the power of the elements. Traditionally displayed in temples and pagodas, hòn non bộ can now easily be produced, purchased and used as decoration in one’s home. On the surface of AP’s sculptures, however, in place of details usually seen on a conventional hòn non bộ (such as live plants and ceramic models of pagodas, humans and animals) now grow palm trees, starfish, flip-flops and bikinis - alluring visuals often associated with the illusion of ‘tropical holiday’ escapism. Next to them, the phrase ‘Việt Nam Quê Hương Tôi’ (‘Vietnam My Country’) appears as fragmented, separated, singular words. No longer standing together, no longer whole, which ‘Vietnam’ is AP referring to? Which one(s) is she claiming to be hers? The one existing in mythology and beliefs; or the one turned into a touristic commodity - packaged, sold and bought, to service others’ fantasy of a heaven on earth? Tucked away, inside some of AP’s ceramic sculptures, we see videos of the artist herself in different situations, playing different characters. In one instance, she is dressed in a traditional áo dài, wearing heavy make-up, floating on top of an oversaturated still image of a landscape with lush greenery and majestic waters. In an awkward, detached, but nonetheless playful manner, AP lip-syncs to the song ‘Cát Bụi Tình Xa’ (roughly translated ‘The Dust of a Love Long Gone’), written by the much-celebrated, late composer Trịnh Công Sơn, originally sung by the Việt kiều singer Khánh Hà. The somewhat amateurish lip-syncing and dancing of the character who AP embodies is intriguing - is she camera-shy, or intentionally doing it out-of-sync? As the video continues, we see her body language starting to change, as she gently flips her hair and flirts with the voyeuristic lenses of the camera, as if claiming her control. At certain points, AP breaks out of both the song and character, deliberately moving her lips out of sync with the tune and leading her gaze elsewhere off frame, and eventually casually gets back to performing. It is as if the music, people and moments of the past have been discarded, erased of their context, forgotten, and become a tune one can conveniently select, play and turn off.. Or, is it that the weight of history is so significant and dense, that one has to - from time to time - ignore its existence? Like it is often said, ‘Ignorance is bliss.’ Elsewhere in the space, another sculpture made of several ceramic parts hangs on the wall, depicting what looks like a pair of underwear or bikini bottom, broken into pieces and tied to a chain. No longer putting on makeup or costumes, in this work AP deliberately takes off her façade, confronting us with the most intimate item of clothing, usually seen by loved ones or oneself. The act of revealing something so close to the skin of the female body and female identity becomes twisted, for across the shiny surface of the ceramic, the word ‘Privilege’ faintly appears. What privilege? The privilege to own and touch one’s body? The privilege to share and change one’s identity? Who has this privilege? Can this privilege be earned, or taken? Here, the artist also points at a different kind of privilege - her own - which has provided her with a better education, given her the opportunity to travel and see the world, and essentially the freedom to choose how to live her life. Ironically, to have this freedom there might be a price to pay, as the symbol of the chain suggests. For is it not true that ‘You win some, you lose some’? Just like in the much darker ending of the original, far more tragic fairy tale, The Little Mermaid has to sacrifice her voice and ultimately her life, only then to be denied by the prince of her dream. She is thus stuck on Earth with a curse: to do good deeds for mankind for 300 years, in the hope that one day she will rise up to Heaven and become immortal. One may wonder, ‘What price is AP willing to pay?’ ... Taking on the character of a tourist traveling her own country as if for the first time, AP skips and scans her everyday surroundings and reality, making a personal journey through the different sites, cultures and stories that Vietnam has to offer. At first glance it seems that the artist, in a child-like manner, randomly picks out whatever references (whether visual or historical) that feed her imagination, freely turning them upside down and inside out, innocently meshing them together to make her art. Underneath it all, however, with consideration and intention, AP bravely embraces both the possibilities and the problematics of her subjects, and also herself. She does so with sincerity, an open heart, and most importantly, with a yearning to learn about the world around her, and to question her own position in that world. And so, her journey continues... OPENING NIGHT See more about artist(s)

Vương ThạoA solo exhibition by VƯƠNG THẠO 13.09 - 23.09.2013 Vuong Thao's Frozen Dreams - September 23, 2013 September 13, 2013 Vương Thạo ARTWORKS GALLERY OPENING NIGHT See more about artist(s)

Nguyễn Huyền Trangart books in the making unfolding - May 10, 2026 April 22, 2026 Nguyễn Huyền Trang 𝗨𝗡𝗙𝗢𝗟𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚—𝗔𝗿𝘁 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗕𝘆 𝗡𝗴𝘂𝘆𝗲𝗻 𝗛𝘂𝘆𝗲𝗻 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗴 Manzi is pleased to present 𝙐𝙣𝙛𝙤𝙡𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜, a special showcase by Nguyen Huyen Trang, who has spent nearly 15 years working in art publishing and book design, collaborating with numerous artists and cultural organizations in Vietnam. Opening: 1:00 PM, Wednesday, April 22, 2026 Hours: 11:00 AM – 7:00 PM, Tuesday – Sunday (from April 23 to May 10, 2026) Venue: Manzi Exhibition Space, No. 2 Hang Bun Alley, Ba Dinh, Hanoi Guided tours and accompanying workshops will take place during the display period. Further details will be announced soon. _______________ In contemporary art practice in Vietnam, books and art publications are often treated as supplementary spaces—places where a work's existence is extended or condensed to serve a specific purpose. The work of bookmaking is, accordingly, mostly known as a behind-the-scenes affair: technical, instrumental, and secondary. But what if the person making the book refuses to stay within those limits and happens, unfortunately, to be a dreamer? One who is still meticulous about every concrete constraint—material and content structure, production costs and deadlines—yet remains driven by a harder-to-grasp question: 𝐻𝑜𝑤 𝑑𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑒, 𝑜𝑟 𝑓𝑢𝑟𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑢𝑛𝑓𝑜𝑙𝑑, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑝𝑖𝑟𝑖𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑛 𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘 𝑖𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚? For nearly 15 years, Nguyen Huyen Trang has worked alongside artists and cultural organizations across projects and events of all scales, pursuing that question in different ways. 𝙐𝙣𝙛𝙤𝙡𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 is a look back at that journey: through more than fifty selected titles from publications she has directly produced, alongside a collection of books and printed materials she has kept as references and points of dialogue. Rather than presenting itself as a linear archive, the display at Manzi opens as a network of relationships—between original works and their printed counterparts, between concept and material, and between reading an archive and seeing art. For Trang, the book is not simply a medium of documentation or communication but a space for experimentation—one in which decisions about material, structure, and rhythm actively reshape how a work is encountered. In this sense, the book becomes another possible form of the artwork itself: a place where the experience of art is extended, transformed, and met again. _______________ Free admission. Please follow the guidance of our coordinators during your visit. Manzi and Nguyen Huyen Trang extend their sincere thanks to all organizations, partners, artists, and friends who have accompanied and supported this project—through materials, resources, and generous spirit—throughout its preparation and realization: Vu Dan Tan Museum, Flamingo Contemporary Art Museum, Song May Contemporary Art Museum, Rabbit Hole, artist Ha Manh Thang and Luong Van Viet, ARB and architect Nguyen Ha, Huy Framing, and many others. ARTWORKS GALLERY OPENING NIGHT See more about artist(s)

open studio by Tạ Huy Long Artworks List

Nguyễn Huy An Võ Trân Châu Phan Thảo Nguyên Trương Công Tùng Nguyễn Trinh ThiA group exhibition about Time 03 - 26.09.2020 Extended Realities - September 26, 2020 September 3, 2020 Nguyễn Huy An Võ Trân Châu Phan Thảo Nguyên Trương Công Tùng Nguyễn Trinh Thi ‘Extended Realities’ – a group exhibition featuring works from five contemporary artists of Vietnam: Võ Trân Châu, Nguyễn Huy An, Phan Thảo Nguyên, Nguyễn Trinh Thi and Trương Công Tùng. Through a minimalist installation, a video art piece, an ephemeral installation and a series of 10 multimedia paintings, ‘Extended Realities’ examines how the artists are working with ideas of time, memory and history. Drawing from literature, philosophy and daily life, artist Phan Thảo Nguyen observes ambiguous issues in social conventions and history. Nguyên’s work ‘Hunger Thread ’ is part of her personal interpretation of the rarely discussed 1945 famine in Vietnam. This ephemeral installation consists of hundreds of raw jute balls scattered throughout the exhibition space. These jute balls can be blown away by the wind or kicked or stepped on by the viewers. In this work, the artist proposes a more nuanced approach to personal and historical tragedies using a new perspective on history and narration, and an artistic medium. Meanwhile, artist Võ Trân Châu recreates collective memories via her embroidery and mosaic artworks depicting long gone architectural structures or historical figures, in an attempt to access obscured or unwritten histories of Vietnam. In contrast with Châu and Thảo Nguyên, artist Trương Công Tùng considers time as one medium for his series of paintings ‘The time of passing shadows (1 2 3 4...)’. In this intriguing series, Tùng sets out a layered narrative of time that is coherent yet tacitly perplexing, with images and information interleaved with fact and fiction Time and history are always central themes in Nguyễn Huy An’s research. In this exhibition, Huy An presents a minimalist installation entitled ‘Exercise No. 2’ which forms part of his ongoing project inspired by the undeniable significance of Lenin as a political figure in the history of the country. The work is created following the artist’s study of the changing shadows of a public sculpture of Lenin over the course of one day, according to the time and position of the sun. Nguyễn Trinh Thi’s practice as a moving image artist has consistently engaged with memory and history, and her work ‘Eleven Men’ is no exception. ‘Eleven Men’ is composed of scenes from a range of Vietnamese classic narrative films featuring the same central actress, Nhu Quynh. Spanning three decades of her legendary acting career, this multilayered work has created a personal connection with and contemplation of the complicated history of Vietnam. *The exhibition is part of Manzi’s Art Programme supported by Goethe-Institut Hanoi. ARTWORKS GALLERY ABOUT THE ARTWORKS 1. Installation ‘Exercise No. 2’ của NGUYỄN HUY AN ---translated from Vietnamese Exercise no. 2: Find an equation that shows the variation of shadow area of Lenin monument over time. Figure 1: Illustration of sun’s position and projection angle at 2.30 pm on the Autumnal equinox of 2014. Note: The Shadow area calculated at different times has tolerance due to the correlation between the positions of Sun and Earth -- - This installation forms part of Huy An’s ongoing project inspired by the undeniable significance of Lenin as a political figure in the history of the country, and of Hanoi in particular. The work is created following the artist’s study of the changing shadows of a public sculpture of Lenin over the course of one day, according to the time and position of the sun. In the study, the shadow exists as an entity arising from the interaction of the natural (the sun and the spinning of the earth) and the unnatural (the concrete form of the statue). Written in the form of a math exercise requesting people to determine the area of Lenin's shadow at different times of the day, consolidated into a mathematical equation, the work gives the viewers an opportunity to reflect on the way our logic, ideals, and world views have always been constrained and impacted by natural forces beyond our control. 2. Embroidery paintings by VÕ TRÂN CHÂU *Portraits no.8,10,11 - (Embroidery on fabric) : Portraits of Emperor Hàm Nghi, Emperor Thành Thái and Emperor Duy Tân – three Emperors of the Nguyễn Dynasty who all were dethroned by the French and exiled to Africa. *‘Somewhere near here 1’ (secondhand clothing, found cabinet door) : image of Thủ Đức Market and Thủ Đức Communal House which no longer exist. *‘Somewhere near here 2’ (secondhand clothing, found cabinet door) : Image of the long gone Chợ Lớn Post Office By pixelating the photographs of architectural structures or historical figures that have completely or partially disappeared from public memory and then laboriously reconstructing them with secondhand clothing or threads and fabric, Tran Chau’s latest series of mosaic and embroidery paintings are a way of re-creating collective memories, as she observes and more deeply explores multiple angles of history. 3. Video art 'Eleven Men' by NGUYỄN TRINH THI (2016) Single-channel installation, sound, 28 minutes ‘Eleven Men’ is composed of scenes from a range of Vietnamese classic narrative films featuring the same central actress, Nhu Quynh. Spanning three decades of her legendary acting career, most of the appropriated movies — from 1966 to 2000 — were produced by the state-owned Vietnam Feature Film Studio. The film’s text was adapted from “Eleven Sons”, a short story by Franz Kafka first published in 1919, which begins with a father’s declaration: ‘I have eleven sons’, then describes each one of them in acute and ironic detail. Transposing the ather’s voice of Kafka’s story, the film begins with a woman stating: ‘I have eleven men’. Footage found from films: ‘Đến hẹn lại lên’ (1974, dir. Trần Vũ) ‘Ngày lễ thánh’ / The Holly Day (1976, dir. Bạch Diệp) ‘Bài ca ra trận’ / Song to the Front (1973, dir. Trần Đắc) ‘Mối tình đầu’ / First Love (1977, dir. Hải Ninh) ‘Nổi gió’ / The Wind Rises (1966, dir. Huy Thành) ‘Hy vọng cuối cùng’ / The last hope (1978, dir. Trần Phương) ‘Mùa hè chiều thẳng đứng’ / Vertical Rays of the Sun (2000, dir. Trần Anh Hùng) ‘Xích lô’ / Cyclo (1995, dir. Trần Anh Hùng) 4. Series The time of passing shadows (1 2 3 4 ...) by TRƯƠNG CÔNG TÙNG Pencil and digital prints on Mylar film, light, darkness, dust, time... 29 cm x 21cm/ 8 layers per piece 20.. – on going Tung’s works are often multilayered, appearing as a coherent narrative, yet tacitly perplexing with images and information interleaved with fact and fiction. 5. Ephemeral installation ‘Hunger Thread’ by PHAN THẢO NGUYÊN (raw jute balls) ‘Hunger Thread’ is part of Phan Thảo Nguyên’s continuing multimedia project entitled ‘Mute Grain’. This ephemeral installation consists of hundreds of raw jute balls that are scattered throughout the exhibition space. Those jute balls can be blown away by the wind or kicked or stepped on by the viewers. Mute Grain is Phan Thảo Nguyên’s personal interpretation of the rarely discussed 1945 famine in Vietnam, during the Japanese occupation of French Indochina. The famine is believed to have caused the deaths of over two million Vietnamese in the Red River Delta. Mute Grain, with a new perspective on history and narration, and an artistic medium, proposes a more nuanced approach to personal and historical tragedies. Nguyên hopes to present the crop failure and famine in the most compassionate and objective way possible, combining sorrow with optimism to celebrate the ephemeral beauty of plant, animal and human lives OPENING NIGHT See more about artist(s)

Quỳnh Đồnga collection of new works by visual artist Quynh Dong delay - July 31, 2026 July 18, 2026 Quỳnh Đồng ‘𝑫𝒆𝒍𝒂𝒚’ — a collection of new works by visual artist Quynh Dong ➖ Opening party: 6.00 PM Saturday 18 July 2026 ➖ On display: 11.00 AM – 07.00 PM (Tuesday – Sunday), from July 19 to July 31, 2026 📍 Manzi Exhibition Space, 2 Hàng Bún Alley, Ba Đình, Hanoi ✨ Free admission __________________ There is a gap that can never be fully crossed or closed: the distance between the moment something happens and the moment someone begins to perceive it. No matter how hard the observer tries, and whatever support they are given, they remain, always, a step behind. Beauty, in its most absolute sense, seems to reveal itself fully only at the threshold of vanishing. A delay that is inherent, inevitable, impossible to escape: Delay—this imperfection of observation, as well as the ephemeral nature of every moment and event—runs through Quynh Dong's practice. She approaches and interrogates observation, memory, and connectedness through a range of materials, from sculpture and painting to video and moving images—yet all of them unfold from a single core medium: performance art. The body, time, and the repetition of the act of looking give rise to structures that appear fragmentary at first glance, presences that hover, hard to hold onto. No story is told in full—only fragments of memory, kinship, belonging... are left open to multiple readings. Delay is not a lament for an ending that never came in time, nor a lingering ache over a missed step. Throughout the works, presences drawn from nature—a withered flower, a dried leaf, a forest, a huge sky, and a forceful sea—appear raw and unadorned, like anchoring points holding, with tenderness, everything that has slipped away, everything that can no longer be changed. To give up a single, separate form and dissolve into a shared current—this, perhaps, is the only shape in which love, memory, beauty, or anything at all can remain and endure. ARTWORKS GALLERY OPENING NIGHT See more about artist(s)

Landscape Quartet & Nguyễn Thanh ThủyA sound & video art installation by The Landscape Quartet & Nguyen Thanh Thuy 02.12 - 07.12.2013 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)

Nguyễn Thế Sơna dialogue between Nguyễn Thế Sơn & William Crawford Then and Now, Hanoi streets in transition - May 20, 2023 April 26, 2023 Nguyễn Thế Sơn 8 Façade photos by William Crawford and 8 Photo relief works in response by Nguyen The Son. Complementing this expose of everyday life in Hanoi is the exhibition in the Manzi Exhibition Space of 8 facades of houses in Hanoi by William Crawford taken nearly 30 years ago juxtaposed with the current 8 facades in photo relief that correspond to these images by Hanoi’s celebrated photographer, Nguyen The Son. For his response to William Crawford’s images, Son uses his own unique prize winning medium of photo relief that he developed while completing his master’s in photography at the Central Academy of Fine Art in Beijing, China in 2012. Building a 3-dimensional structure of layers of each photo, the artist makes the structure come alive, inserting into the street side all types of conveyances that change with the times from the pedicab to the bicycle to the motorbike to the luxury car, all symbols of the rapid transformation of the city. As neon lights take over gas lamps, bold advertising usurps the quiet somber atmosphere and pulses with the energy of contemporary life. A quiet contemplative beauty gives way to the cacophony and action of a modern-day city on the move, racing to the future. The Son is well known for his efforts to promote the arts of Vietnam through not only his own work but also through numerous public art projects that he has organized such as the Phung Hung Street and Phuc Tan project that brings art to the community by involving artists and the local people in all aspects to make art to benefit the culture, environment, and promote tourism. Art Vietnam Gallery and Manzi Art/Exhibition Space want to express our deep gratitude to the American Embassy for their generous support of this exhibition and also all the efforts of American artist David Thomas, founder of the IAP arts foundation without whom this exhibition would not have been possible. We also want to thank the photographer William Crawford’s son, William Crawford Jr., who accompanied his father in the past on some of his journeys to Hanoi, for dutifully and beautifully printing the works of his father. An homage to the love and respect for his father. Enjoy this walk into the life of our beloved Hanoi, past and present, moving forward with grace and dynamism. Suzanne Lecht ARTWORKS GALLERY OPENING NIGHT See more about artist(s)

Nguyễn Trần Naman open studio by Nguyễn Trần Nam in spaces of everyscape, at time without end - August 18, 2024 July 19, 2024 Nguyễn Trần Nam IN SPACES OF EVERYSCAPE, AT TIME WITHOUT END An open studio by Nguyen Tran Nam Opening party: 06.00 PM, Friday night 19 July 2024 On display: from 11.00 AM to 07.00 PM 20 Jul - 18 Aug 2024 (Tue - Sun) Manzi Exhibition Space, no. 2 ngõ Hàng Bún, Ba Đình, Hanoi In this open studio, Nguyen Tran Nam, a Hanoi-based visual artist whose idiosyncratic oeuvre has been shaped by recurring themes of violence & power, death & immortality / incarnation, doubt & imagination, will extend his exploration into surrealism and speculative fiction. Titled ‘In spaces of everyscape, at time without end’, his fourth showcase at manzi and his first-ever body of painting using dzo paper as the main medium will present a catalogue of situations. Some of them are common and familiar in his art world, but the majority of other scenarios are quite new and uninvestigated. More than a reflection of his private memories and obsessions that haunted the artist himself, this series also depicts a shared curse put on his homeland and surrounding people, as indicated by the tactful allusions to some past sociopolitical episodes and the unrest of the current climate. That kind of subtlety and understatement in his paintings stimulates numerous possibilities for interpretation and fictionalization, with three innovative perspectives are suggested: First is the shift in context and space (resulting from material changes): By stepping out of the familiar domain of lacquer and oil paint, which has long been identified with the artist, and toward a new material surface that is fragile yet much more free to drift—dzo paper—the context within Nam’s paintings is devoid of any specified position and staging arrangement. With borders dissolved, 'the spaces of everyscape', therefore, collapsed into one and single co-presence, in which everything comes into being and anything is permitted. Such a universe allows for both violence and oppression; fancy is all soothed with dreams, and no doubt is left unresolved. Second is the set of signals coming from the characters in paintings: absurd yet consistent. The human-shaped individuals, the main protagonists of Nguyễn Trần Nam’s painting, continue to be presented without faces or any definitive identities. These mysterious characters are performing indecipherable actions, whether in an innocent, despairing posture or a sly, cunning masquerade.Their motivations and ambitions remain ambiguous. However, it is evident that no matter how minor or benign the behaviors begin, when reenacted by the protagonists, all activities become brutalized or ritualized, full of menace and divinity. Third is the presence of a new set of bizarre objects in the painting (a ladder, a dead tree, a fallen eye, dissected internal organs, a deer carcass, etc.). The co-existing structure of space, projected around this system of symbols, will undoubtedly bloom with numerous new signs, much like an illusion sprouting from the rotation of a kaleidoscope: They are holy relics or evidence denouncing sins, remnants from an execution site or a sacrifice altar, an imperative punishment or a deliberate voluntary offering ... Ten years after his first presentation at manzi ( solo exhibition Broken Chapters), ‘In spaces of everyscape, at time without end’ marked a change in concept, aesthetics, and creative energy of Nguyễn Trần Nam, promising a new chapter in his future practice. ARTWORKS GALLERY OPENING NIGHT See more about artist(s)