Since 2012, Manzi Art Space has hosted many art exhibitions, talks, workshops, book introductions, movie screenings, music and dance performances, wtih a collaborative approach, working together with local artists, intellectuals and social activists, as well international cultural institutions ART For You Discover art you love, give it a home See more New Backstage A theatrical project by XplusX Studio See more Into Thin Air An art-in-public project for Hanoi See more events at manzi dư cảnh | ripples of the day Tue, Sep 29 Manzi Exhibition Space More info Details muộn màng | delay Fri, Jul 24 Manzi Exhibition Space More info Learn more chủ nhật, mùa hè | a sunday in summer Sun, Jun 21 Manzi Exhibition Space More info Learn more Trò chuyện cùng | Talk with MM Lab Fri, May 29 Manzi Art Space More info Details một trưng bày | a display by MM Lab Fri, May 22 Manzi Exhibition Space More info Details Multiple Dates phía sau trang sách | Tour & Thảo luận cùng Nguyễn Huyền Trang Sat, May 09 Manzi Exhibition Space More info Details Mở sách | Unfolding Wed, Apr 22 Manzi Exhibition Space More info Learn more Thanh âm mấy thuở | Reimagined Fri, Mar 27 Manzi Art Space More info Details Bầu trời ở đâu cũng giống nhau | The sky is the same everywhere Sat, Nov 08 Manzi Exhibition Space More info Details Multiple Dates Tình Sun, Oct 05 Manzi Exhibition Space More info Details Bắt mặt | Catching Faces Sat, Oct 04 Manzi Exhibition Space More info Details Artist Talk vs Nguyễn Thị Thanh Mai Sat, Sep 27 Manzi Art Space More info Details Art Tour | Những Vệt Mờ / Faint Traces Wed, Sep 10 Ba Đình More info Details Những Vệt Mờ | Faint Traces Sat, Sep 06 Manzi Exhibition Space More info Learn more Between the Strings Tue, Aug 05 Manzi Art Space More info Details sóng vỗ cát trời | the sky, the sand, the lashing waves Fri, Aug 01 Manzi Exhibition Space More info Learn more Multiple Dates Nguyên (âm) đơn Sun, Jul 20 Manzi Exhibition Space More info Details lần theo bức tường đá và chúng tôi thấy cái máy phát điện | following the stone wall, we found an electric generator Fri, Jun 13 Manzi Exhibition Space More info Learn more Load More

Đào Tùng, Đỗ Thanh Lãng, Nguyễn Ban Ga, Nguyễn Đức Đạt, Nguyễn Huy An, Nguyễn Trần Nam, Nguyễn Văn PhúcA collaborative installation 6𝒗➡️¹/² - June 8, 2025 May 18, 2025 Đào Tùng, Đỗ Thanh Lãng, Nguyễn Ban Ga, Nguyễn Đức Đạt, Nguyễn Huy An, Nguyễn Trần Nam, Nguyễn Văn Phúc What’s this fuss? What’s this strange cry? Seven full spirits (*) — half slipped by. Lost a half, not quite the whole, Still enough to play the role! ____________________ “6 v ½” stretches beyond the idea of a group show; it is an unfolding tension — spatial, sensorial, and affective — between what masculinity claims and what it conceals. Born from a passing joke in the haze of a drunken night, the work has grown into a porous assemblage of image, sound, scent, performance, and residue. The space tilts, splits, collapses — invaded by bizarre forms, solitary presences. These objects appear not as universal signs but as private traces — too personal, too peculiar to be decoded through type or symbol.They linger between presence and reticence, between the compulsion to reveal and the instinct to withhold. This restless motion reveals itself in skewed shadows, shifting lights, simmering smells, murmuring machines, and faltering words — all suspended in the shared field: | the fragility & the masculinity | — a condition that can reach neither a plenitude of meaning nor a truly stable referent. --- (*) Seven full spirits (from the original 7 “vía” in Vietnamese) According to Vietnamese folk belief, a man is said to have seven vía (women have nine) — immaterial spirits or life-essences that govern vitality, luck, and emotional balance. The phrase “seven full spirits” echoes this notion while gesturing toward the fragility and flux of masculine identity. The humorous phrase “losing half a spirit” plays on this concept while teasing the idea of masculine instability. With just six and a half left — is one never quite masculine or ever more virile/effeminate? ARTWORKS GALLERY Seven artists, one installation—sharing one stage, one play. You’d think they speak in unison, share one spirit. But well… "One man, two ___ Three men got ___ Four men dropped their ___ Who dropped their ___? Who left? Who left? Four men — no. One man — not yet. Half a man… no? Who says yes? Who wants — ? Who wants... not?" (a made-up rhyme written by Đào Tùng & Nguyễn Trần Nam) OPENING NIGHT See more about artist(s)

Located in centre of Hanoi, Manzi is known as one of the most dynamic art spaces in South East Asia. Through art exhibitions, talks, workshops, book introductions, movie screenings, music and dance performances, Manzi's mission is to promote contemporary arts, build new audiences, inspire critical thinking and nurture VUI LÒNG CHỌN NGÔN NGỮ Tiếng Việt CHOOSE THE LANGUAGE English

Nguyễn Trinh ThiA video & sound installation by Nguyen Trinh Thi 12.12.2020 - 10.01.2021 Landscape #4: How to Improve the World - January 10, 2021 December 12, 2020 Nguyễn Trinh Thi Landscape #4: How to Improve the World is an aurally-centered video installation reflecting on the past, present, and future of indigenous cultures of the people of Vietnam's Central Highlands. The work foregrounds the indigenous sound, voice and music against a backdrop of a land that has gone through periods of Christianization, war, socialist and contemporary transformations. ARTWORKS GALLERY 'As our globalized and westernized cultures have come to be dominated by visual media, I feel the need and responsibility as a filmmaker to resist this narrative power of the visual imagery, and look for a more balanced and sensitive approach in perceiving the world by paying more attention to aural landscapes, in line with my interests in the unknown, the invisible, the inaccessible, and in potentialities' - Nguyễn Trinh Thi Comments on ‘Landscape #4’ “Beautiful and intriguing, beautiful music, intriguing form/structure/techniques, lots to think about in terms of sound as sound, sound as music, song as story, memory and the senses, memory as shared performance, and of course much more. The intersection with Christianity is of course tragic while at the same time the congregational songform has its own kind of beauty.” - Ernst Karel, musician, recordist, composer, teaches sonic ethnography at Harvard University “One of things that struck me most powerfully is how the film is all about listening. The act of making the work is in itself an act of listening. Listening to the story being told by the singer, alongside the other listeners around him, but also the film itself tunes in to the musicality, rhythms, and acoustic layers of memory, time and a history of this specific location.” - Philippa Lovatt, lecturer at University of St. Andrews, Scotland, with research interests in sound in audio-visual media, Southeast Asian and East Asian Cinemas, Experimental Film and Documentary OPENING NIGHT See more about artist(s)

Kim Duya solo show by Kim Duy a sunday in summer - July 12, 2026 June 21, 2026 Kim Duy A SUNDAY IN SUMMER Opening party: 5.30 PM, Sunday 21 June 2026 On display: 11.00 – 19.00, Tuesday – Sunday, from 22 June to 12 July 2026 Manzi Exhibition Space, 2 Hàng Bún Alley, Ba Đình, Hanoi Free admission --- "For they are the moments when something new has entered us, something unknown; our feelings grow mute in shy embarrassment, everything in us withdraws, a silence arises, and the new experience, which no one knows, stands in the midst of it all and says nothing." Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet , Letter Eight (Borgeby gård, Sweden, August 12, 1904), trans. Stephen Mitchell (New York: Random House, 1984) 'a sunday in summer' by Kim Duy opens onto the silence of a strange experience like that. Without striving for a consolidated scenario, a legible narrative, or a sharp manifesto, Manzi invites you to step in and sit with something subtle and provoking Gathering practices scattered across more than fifteen years—painting, photography, video, and installation—Kim Duy's body of work at Manzi resembles a kind of non-deliberate experiment, in which the absence of a rationally plotted plan opens up a play with the drifting and meaning-making potential of signs. Lines and colours break free from their descriptive function; language is transcribed until it can no longer be read, leaving only visual traces shaped by the rhythm of a repeated act; an abstract concept restructured into millions of letter combinations that shapes forms and corporeal presence, and ink marks in the palm of a hand being preserved and left to fade gradually through daily life, through water, through air, through sweat… Drawing is also Writing. Recording is simultaneously Erasure. Each work in 'a sunday in summer' , however different in subject and material, tests painting against the impulse of chance and the slow kneading of time. Like leafing through a long-unread notebook while tracing and finding new meaning in fragments of signs, Kim Duy's 'a sunday in summer'' is a pursuit of images and ideas—catching them, then letting them slip away: thoughts already passed, notions just taking shape, or something that may only be an illusion still flickering faintly in the distance. ARTWORKS GALLERY OPENING NIGHT See more about artist(s)

Thomas BillhardtA photography exhibition by THOMAS BILLHARDT 03.10 - 15.11.2020 Hà Nội 1967 - 1975 - November 15, 2020 October 3, 2020 Thomas Billhardt The Goethe Institut, Camera Work, Nhã Nam Publisher and Manzi Art Space are pleased to present an extraordinary photo exhibition featuring Hanoi in the period of 1967 to 1975 by world-renowned German photographer Thomas Billhardt. Consisting of 130 black & white and colour photos taken during Thomas Billhardt's trips to Vietnam, the exhibition presents viewers an honest documentary of Hanoi from 1967 to 1975, minute by quotidian minute, sincere and unadorned. ‘Hanoi 1967- 1975’ through the lens of Thomas is the joyful moment of welcoming a child born in the wartime, the captured American pilots in the camps, the crowds bicycling in the rains, the outdoor drawing classes with barefooted pupils, the innocent happy faces of children, the iconic stadium with football crowds lost in passionate cheers… All these visual notes make a symphony about life steeped in hardship but brimming with care and love. ‘Thomas’s photos held up a mirror to the world while at the same time strengthening hope. They tell of the world’s social inequalities, of poverty, of suffering, of war, but also of the life and laughter of the people who live in it’ – says Wilfried Eckstein, Director of the Goethe Institut. ‘Hanoi 1967- 1975’ by Thomas carves out its own realm of memory where Hanoi appears in all its various expressions of this time. The exhibition open from 3rd Oct. to 15 Nov. 2020 at both spaces of Manzi: 02 Ngõ Hàng Bún and 14 Phan Huy Ích, Ba Đình, Hanoi. A photo book 'Hà Nội 1967-1975' published by the Goethe Institut and Nha Nam Publishing House will be launched during the exhibition with a series of talks and film screenings. ARTWORKS GALLERY INTRO Thomas Billhardt was one of the GDR’s most extraordinary photographers . In the late 1960s, his shots of the Vietnam War earned him worldwide fame. He was the first to capture the horrors of this war on camera, especially in his photographs of children’s faces. His photographic art was created and spread in a time before digital overload. His photos were unforgettable, images that would linger before the viewer’s inner eye. They held up a mirror to the world while at the same time holding out hope. They tell of the world’s social inequalities, of poverty, of suffering, of war, but also of the life and laughter of the people who live in it. In his photography, Thomas Billhardt expressed suffering through the iconography of big, expressive children’s eyes. His style stirred empathy and solidarity across national borders. As a news photographer, he travelled on behalf of GDR government authorities, agencies, publishing houses, and UNICEF. He documented the hot spots of world events such as Vietnam, travelling to Bangladesh, China, Chile, Guinea, Indonesia, Cambodia, Lebanon, Mozambique, the Middle East, Nicaragua, and the Philippines. His first long-distance trip took him to revolutionary Cuba in 1961. “That trip,” he says, “was a turning point in my life. I was not indifferent to the experience and fascination of the revolutionary movement. I got to know two sides of society.” The countries he visited most often were the Soviet Union, Vietnam, and Italy. Between 1962 and 1985, he visited the Soviet Union over fifty times and Italy more than twenty times. He was fascinated by social contradictions expressed in the faces of the people he saw: “I experienced human joy and suffering, whether it was on the natural gas fields of the former USSR or on the front lines in Vietnam .” (Thomas Billhardt) BIO Thomas Billhardt, born in 1937 , grew up in Chemnitz, which was called Karl-Marx-Stadt during the GDR era. One of the enduring impressions of his childhood was the smell of developer and fixing bath chemicals in his parents’ home. His mother Maria Schmid-Billhardt was a freelance photographer who had her own studio. At the age of 14, he was apprenticed to her and some fellow photographers, including the founder of the GDR’s first color lab. In addition to attending vocational school, which is part of apprenticeship programs in Germany, his mother also arranged additional private lessons for him in mathematics, German, English, P.E. (tennis), History, Art History, and Painting. With this thorough education, especially his rich knowledge of art history and painting, he immediately passed the entrance examination for the Academy of Applied Arts in Magdeburg, which he attended from 1954 to 1957. In the Großkayna lignite mining area, he got to know the dark side of his profession – documenting work accidents that involved casualties with serious or even fatal injuries. From 1958 – 1963, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig, graduating with a degree as photographer / photo designer. Until 1971, he worked as a freelance photographer. From 1972 to 1981, he headed a work group at the German Advertising Agency (DEWAG) Berlin, and from 1982 to 1989 he was head of Billhardt studio. Since 1989, Thomas Billhardt has been a member of the German Association of Journalists and since 1990, a member of the Association of Freelance Photo Designers, which also made him an honorary member in 2019. He gained renown through his publications in magazines and exhibitions in many countries. The exhibition accompanying this photobook is his third exhibition in Vietnam, followed by an exhibition in 1972, and a show for the film project “Iced lemonade for Hong Li” in the year 2000 at the Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc. VIETNAM In 1967, Thomas Billhardt travelled to Hanoi for the first time via Moscow, Irkutsk, Beijing, and Nanning. At the time, he was a freelancer for the independent documentary film studio Heynowski & Scheumann. His mission was to make an interview-based documentary film about US-American pilots who had been shot down and captured. For the 1968 film “Pilots in Pajamas”, Thomas Billhardt did the exterior shots. The pictures he took on this trip appeared internationally in the American magazine ‘Life’, in the French ‘Paris Match’, in the West German magazines ‘Stern’ and ‘Spiegel’, and many other magazines. This trip and a follow-up trip to Vietnam resulted in the first traveling exhibition about the war in Vietnam, which was shown in 1969 in the GDR, the Federal Republic of Germany, Sweden, and Moscow. His first illustrated book about Vietnam was published in Leipzig in 1973. Thomas Billhardt traveled to the war-ravaged country six times between 1962 and 1975 and has returned to it six more times since then. The photographs taken during these trips have been published in four illustrated books. “Pilots in Pajamas” (1968), “Longing for Peace: Vietnam” (1973), “Hanoi on the Eve of Peace” (1973) and “Faces of Vietnam” (1978). PHOTO ART Thomas Billhardt describes his pictures as ‘honest’, thus underscoring his independence as an artist who seeks the bare, unbiased view of things. When he hits the shutter button on his camera, the things in front of his lens must be worth capturing, not only because back in the day, negative film was expensive and it took a either lot of money or good connections to get one’s hands on the higher-quality, Western Kodak products, but also because he didn’t work in a studio like his mother, but out in the field, in public spaces. What he tried to capture was irreproducible moments, authentic, sincere images, like a beautiful face in a bleak world, innocent laughter in a harsh, threatening environment, an idyllic everyday moment that makes us forget about fear and war and gives us hope for peaceful normalcy. Thomas Billhardt hails from an era and a world where the demands of privacy require discreteness and respect for the integrity of the individual. However, he could only create compelling photography if he managed to capture private moments, in other words, if he was able to steal a glimpse of this very privacy. As a photographer, he seeks the unadulterated moment, people’s faces before they realize they are about to be captured on film. It is about the moment before they react and try to control their appearance. Capturing this instant, immortalizing people in their candid uniqueness, is what creates the intimacy and warmth of his photographs that stirs empathy in their viewers – for example, with the people of Vietnam. Taking an honest picture is not easy. Today, we pose incessantly in front of cell phone cameras. We post our likenesses on social media, with certain gestures and fake smiles, gleaning ‘likes’ from our followers near and far. But even before the digital age, it was not easy to take a candid shot of a person, because whenever we see a camera, it is our reflex to assume a certain posture, pose, or try to dodge the picture. Thomas Billhardt developed his own unique technique. In public spaces, he used a telephoto lens to get close enough to people, whom he took out of the slogan-ridden socialist reality of the GDR, searching for personalities, moods, and individuality. Another approach was his ‘angle trick’, his technique of photographing around corners. He would hold his reflex camera at eye level, with his eye firmly on the viewfinder, but the lens pointed to the side, which meant he saw everything upside down and reversed in the viewfinder. Over time, he had trained his eye so well that he did even not notice the inversion anymore and was able to find his subject immediately. “I would stalk my ‘victims’ like a wolf, calculate the best exposure time, and estimate the distance so I could pre-set those elements. Then came the moment of deception. When I lifted the camera, I only looked at the screen and could push the shutter button unnoticed. That’s how I captured the actual scene.” After German reunification, people wondered if Thomas Billhardt was a mere state-sponsored artist and how to appraise his success in the authoritarian regime of the GDR in retrospect. He travelled on behalf of state-controlled publishing houses, at the invitation of cultural institutions, but also often on his own initiative. His photographs adorned many state propaganda publications. He was awarded national art prizes. – To live and survive, he had to make many compromises within the rigid framework of a surveillance state. It is true, of course, that Thomas Billhardt supplied the system he lived in with the images it needed. But this was the only way he could survive as an artist, and many independent artists in liberal states and capitalist exploitation contexts are actually in the same boat; they too, must deliver what their system demands. Otherwise, they are doomed to a life of insignificance and rob themselves of any chance to make and impact or communicate a message. Their contributions and critical reflections also make enable their audience to keep going. Structural violence, whether it be greed or political leadership, can only be overcome by cunning resourcefulness or by escaping into niches of freedom. We have already addressed Billhardt’s resourcefulness. Let’s also remember that art always needs free space. For Tomas Billhardt, this was the FDJ student magazine FORUM for a while, then his cooperation with the independent film studio Heynowski & Scheumann. It was this kind of freedom that helped his great work excel. It enabled him to maintain his independence and refine his experience of the world and thus his artistic work. This explains why he virtually skyrocketed in his politically rigid environment as an innovative upstart. Of course, he was often subject to distrust while being officially admired. Time and again, he had to convince doubters through quality and originality. His hard-won success proved him right. Wherever he went, he found himself in a paradox. Was he a revolutionary reporter like Capa? Hardly. He came from a middle-class background, his mother’s private studio. He was raised to be a diligent worker and an educated mind. He did not seek adventure in order to escape his middle-class environment. He wanted to get to the bottom of things and share his insights with the world; his objective was the happy smile of a child. Thomas Billhardt remained true to himself throughout his life. He is a sharply alert, critical explorer of poverty and crisis spots around the world. Children have always been his ambassadors. The fact that his art is political, yet not simplistic, has made him a star in the Western art and photography scene. Since 1999, Thomas Billhardt's work has been exhibited at the renowned photo art gallery CAMERA WORK and has been shown in many locations around the globe. Wilfried Eckstein Director, Goethe Institut Vietnam OPENING NIGHT See more about artist(s)

Trương Công TùngA collaborative installation by plants, insects, earth, water, ash, air... and Trương Công Tùng 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)

Nguyễn Huy Ana new series of installations by visual artist Nguyễn Huy An The Four Subjects - November 5, 2022 October 8, 2022 Nguyễn Huy An For this comeback after three years (since his third solo show in Saigon), Huy An assembles an exclusive space for singular objects/relationships which would provoke an odd encounter of disparate subjects (they are essentially alien to each other and, at first sight, seemingly unfamiliar to the keen followers of Huy An’s art practices as well). The new series of installation artworks features neither a reiteration of Huy An’s recurring motifs centered around his personal memories and the rural Northern Vietnam nor a replay of predominant themes such as local religious & spiritual dimensions and the divine & the profane which had often haunted Huy An’s practices with subtle shading of nostalgia for the past years. ‘The Four subjects ’, nevertheless, is a display of his new and ongoing meditations on the potential possibilities of the visible / the action of seeing: - A study of a very narrow blind area in the horse’s vision - A reproduction of the comprehensive illustrated encyclopedia of Vietnamese Geography in the reign of Emperor Minh Mạng - A co-presence of a lasting powerful light source and an ephemeral standard light with the minimum luminous intensity/ traces of its absence - An extended thread of blanked-out images rhythmically punctuated with 51 bright colorful trails - effects of light leak in the first frames at the beginning of a film roll A nuanced diagram of various scenarios, a bulleted list of prospects, with conciseness, clarity yet ambiguity, on the basis of diverse references. ‘Four Subjects ’, therefore, resists the tendency to be interpreted as a coherent narrative that compels clear-cut messages or epic conclusions, but rather, provides clues of a puzzle lock. Scattered in a clear irreducible space, four sets of installations formulate somewhat of a tricky multi-point latching system; once this mechanism is unlocked with the right key, all pieces eventually fall into place. However, before the time comes, this arrangement, in the form of fragmented archives, is a dissonant structure. Apart from sharing some common characteristics in the artist’s reticence and restraint, along with the faint imprints of his personal codes (the light and shadow, the anonymous emptiness/ darkness and the futile attempt to preserve the remnants of vanishing cultures or to record the faded shades of the past), four installations of ‘The Four Subjects ’, albeit connected in one theme called ‘seeing’, manifest themselves in a visual disharmony. This discordant presence sets off a tension of the haphazard and the random, of the absurdity and the evanescence, of the definitive and the infinite. In that way, entailed in Four Subjects the implication of ‘Seeing or Not Seeing ’/‘In sight or Out of sight ’ is not a mutually exclusive claim or a two-choice question. Instead, a ‘No’ can be a ‘Yes’ and vice versa, everything is a metaphor. By confronting us with confounding variables in his experiment, Huy An opens up a free space that enables us to go beyond our limited perception which has always been dominated by our sense of sight and visual information. *This is part of manzi’s art programme under the patronage of the Goethe Institut. ARTWORKS GALLERY the four subjects #1. Blind Spot The very small blind area in the 350o range of horse’s vision #2. Submerged in the layers of ‘cánh gián’ 162 scenes within the penumbra of ‘cánh gián’- the layers of sơn ta coating #3. Blindlingly dazzling point A candle was illuminated by - the light power of 500 lumens (of a torch) #4. A series of consecutivelines ...frame 1 blank frame 2 filled frame 3 blank frame 4 filled frame 5 blank frame 6 filled frame 7 blank frame 8 filled frame 9 blank frame 10 filled frame 11 blank frame 18 filled frame 19 blank frame 20 filled frame 21 blank frame 22 filled frame 28 blank frame 29 filled frame 30 blank frame 31 filled frame 32 blank frame 33 filled frame 34 blank frame 38 filled frame 39 blank frame 40 filled frame 41 blank frame 42 filled frame 43 blank frame 44 filled frame 45 blank frame 46 filled frame 47 blank frame 48 filled frame 49 blank frame 50 filled frame 51 blank frame 52 filled. Between the ‘blank’ and ‘filled’ frames, there are lines in different vivid colors: red, yellow, orange, pink, magenta… ___________________________________________________________________ About the Four Subjects: A note for exhibition by Nguyễn Như Huy 1. The tragedy of ‘Oedipus the King’, from a specific perspective, can be viewed as a tale of paradoxical dialectics between ‘looking’ and ‘seeing’, ‘ sight’ and ‘insight’. Oedipus, regardless of his vision / ability to see, was totally blind to his reality, while Teiresias, the blind prophet, could simply see the truth. Finally, Oedipus paid for his crimes by self punishment: blinding himself. He destroyed his eyes - the tool of vision, because the truth had become known by then and he could live in the truth despite the physical blindness. In some aspects, The Four Subjects by Nguyễn Huy An at Manzi, has approached such complex philosophical dialectical relations between ‘sight’ and ‘insight’ by means of visual arts. Huy An’s attempts in this visualization based on four questions (or four subjects - as the artist called them) a/ The First Question is about an act of seeing yet insufficient/ incomplete. It is suggested in the ‘BLIND SPOT’ - the installation work simulated the vision range of the horse which expands 350 degrees. b/ The Second Question asked in the installation titled ‘SUBMERGED IN THE LAYERS OF “CÁNH GIÁN” addresses the concealed visibility / an act of seeing yet hidden. This installation includes many small flat wooden boards (or “vóc”) of the same size like ancient Buddhist inscriptions, these are lacquer paintings on which are drawings of 162 scenes - the carving patterns can be found on The Nine Dynastic Urns of the Nguyen Dynasty. These 9 urns (‘Cửu Đỉnh’) were constructed by order of Emperor Minh Mạng (in 1837) with inspiration from the Xia’s Dynastic Urns of China. They were placed in front yard of The Mieu complex (the imperial temple worshiping the emperors of the Nguyen Dynasty). As a sacred treasure embodied the great power of the unified territory & the eternity of the Nguyen Dynasty, each urn was named after the posthumous title of an emperor. What’s special in Huy An’s adaptation is that: though had been painted, these lacquer baseboards were left without sanding or polishing but coated with a thick layer of ‘cánh gián’ (a soft brown color - like the cockroach wing). As a result, instead of resurfacing, all visual elements are hidden; this leads us to a realization: history itself has always been concealed by the manipulation of historical analysis & interpretation process. c/ The Third Question is about a complete disappearance without absence, the situation of being vanished from sight while still being present. It is proposed in the installation called ‘BLINDINGLY DAZZLING POINT’ in which a flashlight power of 500 lumens directly focuses on a candle, instantaneously the candlelight ceases to be seen. d/ The Fourth Question presents the relation between ‘Seeing’ and ‘Not Seeing’ in the last work ‘A SERIES OF CONSECUTIVE LINES’. This installation features a thread of light-leaked photos - a common error occurred with a film camera; images then could only be captured in one half of the frame while the other half went blank. And what did the artist do with these frames? He covered both the filled parts and the blank parts, only revealing the colored lines between them. Thus, it becomes apparent to us that Huy An has exposed the relation between ‘Seeing’ and ‘Not Seeing’ here: not mutually exclusive, they validate rather than negate each other. One can only be brought into being in the existence of another. In other words, ‘Seeing’ and ‘Not Seeing’ are both potentiality and actuality of each other. 2. FOUR SUBJECTS has, essentially, conceptualized the ‘Unseen’ / ‘Not Seeing’, or more precisely, the looking for a way to see the unseen / to get the insight into something out of sight. ‘Not Seeing’ does not equal having nothing to see, that is to say, a reality negative in the visual aspect. Rather, it is a perception of the limits of our visual acuity which ultimately affirms ‘what can be seen/known’ beyond our senses. To see the ‘not seeing’ therefore, is not a pure sophistry in the absurd paradoxical structure. Oppositely, this probably provides a kind of enlightenment, a perfect wisdom attained in the same way as The Heart Sutra of Buddhism has stated in the concept of śūnyatā (emptiness/nothingness): all things are empty of intrinsic existence and nature; transcending the seemingly conflicting relation of ‘form’ and ‘emptiness ’, śūnyatā is the essential core of all beings & universe. OPENING NIGHT See more about artist(s)

Nguyễn Trần NamA solo exhibition by NGUYỄN TRẦN NAM 06.10 - 31.10.2017 ...undone... - October 31, 2017 October 6, 2017 Nguyễn Trần Nam The adjective 'undone' contains a host of possible meanings - distraught, fallen apart, unfinished, unaccomplished, ruined, destroyed – encompassing the uncanny nature of Nguyen Tran Nam’s most recent series of work. The lacquer paintings mark a return to a medium from Nam’s formal training at the Vietnam University of Fine Arts (graduated 2003) after a lengthy stint producing a diverse body of multimedia work as one of Hanoi’s second-wave of contemporary artists, yet his aesthetic and subjects continue in the vein of his more experimental work. Dark and heavy, the series’ brutal beauty reveals the artist’s concern with both the dead and the living and portrays his obsession with the ruins of landscapes and life. Forming an imaginary realm unbound by truth, time or place, these are images of chases, riots, crushed faces prostrating on the streets, someone’s shadow just gliding through the darkness on the other side of a door. The depictions seem to pass by without reason, no beginning or ending, no explanation. And we humans are left to doubtfully wonder about moments of insecurity in the past, and realise that they are not individual points in time but a permanent presence, that we have been and will always be stuck in. For Nguyen Tran Nam, drawing is a kind of journaling process, during which he unconsciously chronicles the ambiguity drifting in his mind as a result of stories he has heard, experiences he has been through and the character of life as well as philosophical metaphors, a general state of absurdity and obsessions with literature and poetry or myths. And whether these fragments of his mind were recorded accidentally or noted down intentionally, in the end they come together to turn into an untitled disorder that resembles an everlasting instant without beginning or ending *This is part of Manzi’s art programme supported by CDEF of the Danish Embassy in Vietnam. ARTWORKS GALLERY THE HAMMER SPEAKS (by Nietzsche) Translation by Water Kaufmann THE VIKING PRESS, 1951. “Why so hard?” the kitchen coal once said to the diamond. “After all, are we not close kin?” Why so soft? O my brothers, thus I ask you: are you not after all my brothers? Why so soft, so pliant and yielding? Why is there so much denial, self-denial, in your hearts? So little destiny in your eyes? And if you do not want to be destinies and inexorable ones, how can you one day [2] triumpth with me? And if your hardness does not wish to flash and cut and cut through, how can you one day create with me? For all creators are hard. And it must seem blessedness to you to impress your hand on millennia as on wax, Blessedness to write on the will of millennia as on bronze – harder than bronze, nobler than bronze. Only the noblest is altogether hard. This new tablet, O my brothers, I place over you: become hard! OPENING NIGHT See more about artist(s)

Nguyễn Huy AnA solo exhibition by NGUYỄN HUY AN 02.06 - 15.06.2018 Calculus Exercise #6/5 - June 15, 2018 June 2, 2018 Nguyễn Huy An Calculus Exercise #6/5 is Huy An’s second solo exhibition since 78 Rhythms - his first solo show at Galerie Quynh in Saigon in 2014. Known for his quiet, powerful paintings, installations and performance pieces, Huy An’s practice tends towards a minimal way of expression, using dark materials sourced from everyday life with an association to memories and personal experiences. In this exhibition, Huy An shows small, simple, serene and poetic paintings on Dó paper portraying iconic rural sceneries alongside a continuation of his intriguing experimentation with conceptual writings. Inspired by landscapes or historical relics in the North of Vietnam like Tản Viên Mountain or Hoan Kiem Lake or Phủ Giày and by lingering memories and symbols associated with countryside folktales, like the betel nut, spinach fences, the shadow of a buffalo or a village hall, originating from the Red River Delta, Huy An's conceptual texts work as a visual archive of his memories and histories that relate to the social and political context of Northern Vietnam. The vague, hopeless yet unquestionably determined acts described with every single sentence manifests the artist’s nostalgia for the old days as well as a melancholic irony as a response to the fast change of the country. The exhibition is an intricate poetic journey where the artist himself wanders through time and space and the past and the present, while delving into the culture and history of the country. *This exhibition is part of Manzi’s art programme supported by the Danish Embassy. ARTWORKS GALLERY OPENING NIGHT See more about artist(s)

Phạm Hà Ninhan open studio by Ha Ninh Pham Entrusted Conjectures - August 6, 2023 June 23, 2023 Phạm Hà Ninh 𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐉𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄𝐒 - an open studio by visual artist Hà Ninh Pham Presenting a new series of ‘sculptures - measuring instruments’ as a part of his on-going project titled ‘My Land’ Opening party: 06.00 PM Friday night, 23 June 2023 On display: 11.00 AM - 07.00 PM from 26 June until 06 August, 2023 (Tue - Sun) How much of our perception of the world is shaped by the way we measure it? Measurement refers to various systems of apparatus, units and rules based on which the uncertainty of value is reduced and can be expressed in a quantity. The standardization in measurement establishes a mutual understanding of quantities, and provides the basic reference for many disciplines. Measurement, thus, is a cornerstone of science, a fundamental step in framing and constructing the world. In ‘Entrusted Conjectures’, we are introduced to a series of handmade instruments of measurement. This is part of ‘My Land’, the multi-year, multi-disciplinary world-building project that Hà Ninh has been working on since 2017. “This territory does not correspond to any known culture in human history. It has its own systems of logic, language, and metrology that are functional only within themselves” (from Hà Ninh’s artist’s statement for ‘My Land’). Based on various materials, the construction of ‘My Land’ expands through two-dimensional drawings, three-dimensional sculptures, story writing and a virtual game. Correspondingly, there are four different “entrances”- four starting points to experience the territory. ‘Entrusted Conjectures’, featuring some realizations of the fictional metrology system provides one of the entry points. Designed and created with a DIY aesthetic, most of the sculptures are crafted from wood, with some few elements completed with tracing paper and 3D printed plastic. Measuring instruments are presented along with the ‘display plates’ recording the data and measuring results, as well as other artifacts which have been interpreted, visualized from the outputs of measurements. The whole body of works proclaims its presence right in the center of the exhibition space and defends its autonomy with a kind of fortification: a dry moat has been dug, precisely surrounding the display area. Outside the moat, on the walls is another type of boundary, a line of sketches positioned at eye level, a vague resemblance to a horizon. ‘Entrusted Conjectures’ suggests reflections on the boundary, on the problem of trust and on the possibilities of a proof and an assumption. By juxtaposing the physicality and materiality implied in sculptures with the functionality of the instruments relied on fictional ideas and principles, an intriguing investigation begins, testing the unreality of the reality / the non-real nature of the word thought to be quantifiable and perceivable. There will come a time when every measurement would be an act of re-measuring; as there always comes a time when people can no longer believe in the results of previous measurements. A continuous process of forming a hypothesis then proving and disproving - that’s how science is built. ‘Entrusted Conjectures’, in this version presented at manzi, is just the first step. Surely we can expect more surprises to come in the future. How far can the artist go in this journey of organizing, interpreting our world and architecting his world? A thoroughly independent scientific and technical system - an alternative definition of reality can be achieved someday, maybe? *The open studio is organized by Manzi Art Space & A+ WORKS of ART ___________________ Measuring the world - random notes >>> read here ARTWORKS GALLERY Artist Statement _______________________________ “My work explores how we construct an understanding of a territory from afar through reported materials. Since 2017, I have been working on a long-term project titled ‘ My Land’ , in which I design a world that does not correspond to any known culture in human history. This project consists of paintings, sculptures, drawing scrolls and video games that represent maps, artifacts, steles and stories of an imagined territory. The territory has its own systems of logic, language, and cosmology that only refer to themselves but are fully functional. I want to see how far I can go in persuading that the territory does exist. I also consider the project as a thought experiment of a phenomenal environment in which the personal experience of any viewer is stripped away. They must completely abandon their invalid cultural legacy in order to navigate this world. The project consists of four Series . They are developed based on different frameworks that correspond to different modes of exploring an unknown land. Series 1 is the spatial mapping of the land. Series 2 is the physical properties of the land and their relationships with the properties of our world. Series 3 is the history of the land written in a language that slips between drawing and writing. Series 4 surrounds a real limited company, My Land ltd., that sells merchandise of the land to the public audience. ‘Entrusted Conjectures ’ features the recent development of Series 2 [Logs ] of my world-building project My Land. After maps (Series 1) and language (Series 3) , I want to make up some science for my world. There will be 15 sculptures. They function as measurement or rendering tools that, I hope, translate the paradoxical space in my drawings into 3D. They go with 40 technical drawings that explain how they work. I also show MY CONVERSATION with some AI engines about my work in the open studio - Hà Ninh Pham 💬 'I ASK AI ABOUT MY SHOW' >>> Click here to read OPENING NIGHT See more about artist(s)

Nguyễn Mạnh HùngA solo exhibition by NGUYỄN MẠNH HÙNG 07.07 - 28.07.2013 One Planet - July 28, 2013 July 7, 2013 Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng A collaboration of manzi art space with Galerie Quynh (HCMC), 'One Planet' is a solo exhibiton by visual artist Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng - one of the most important young artists in Vietnam. ‘One Planet’ features Hùng's new sculptural installations which was on show in Ho Chi Minh City early this year and a series of his paintings that the artist himself refers to as 'Mauvais Gout' (‘bad taste') entitled ‘We’ve been here’. Drawing from his own personal history growing up in a cramped Soviet style apartment block in Hanoi, Hùng reflects on the idea of community, the conflicts that exist within and without constructed societies, and the complexities of civic development and individual responsibility. How is a community defined? Is the traditional idea of community just hollow rhetoric or an ideal that can evolve and adapt to modern day Vietnam? Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng confronts these issues with his trademark irony and humor highlighting the oftentimes absurdity of human behavior and endeavor. 'One Planet' in Hanoi is supported by the Prince Claus Fund for Culture & Development ARTWORKS GALLERY https://www.facebook.com/notes/1734658223368105/ OPENING NIGHT See more about artist(s)