sketch Nguyễn Ngọc Linh biography After years following the career of a tatoo artist in Hanoi, in 2015, Nguyen Ngoc Linh decided to go abroad and studied at the Fine Art Dept, Strasbourg University, France. He has participated in several exhibitions in 3 years studying there. His works on watercolour focus on human anatomy reflecting his concerns of identification of living things. Linh now works as a lecturer at the MonsterLab - one of the leading graphic design training centre in Vietnam. works This artist currently has no available work at Manzi works Lying nude NGUYỄN NGỌC LINH 2023 45,5 x 37 cm (incl.frame) pencil on paper Enquire works Are you scared now? NGUYỄN NGỌC LINH 2022 18 x 13 cm gel inkpen on dzo paper Enquire related Catching Faces Faint Traces the sky, the sand, the lashing waves following the stone wall and we found an electric generator 6𝒗➡️¹/² The world as a draft The Fifth Cardinal Direction Spatium 47 Days, Sound-less in spaces of everyscape, at time without end </3 Hồi Sóng Birdsong on our pathway vol. 4 Entrusted Conjectures Hanoi 1985 - 2015, In The Years Of Forgetting Then and Now, Hanoi streets in transition 'Neo-Romanticism' More than Human #1 Arca Noa no-think The Four Subjects A saga of unrealised projects The dreamer: heterotopia, tabula rasa, noble silence (a part of ongoing project 0395A.ĐC) Through the looking glass what's going on at Manzi Tình See more October 5, 2025 Tình See more October 4, 2025 Bắt mặt | Catching Faces See more October 4, 2025 Tình See more October 3, 2025 Artist Talk vs Nguyễn Thị Thanh Mai See more September 27, 2025 Art Tour | Những Vệt Mờ / Faint Traces See more September 10, 2025 Những Vệt Mờ | Faint Traces See more September 6, 2025 Between the Strings See more August 5, 2025 sóng vỗ cát trời | the sky, the sand, the lashing waves See more August 1, 2025 Nguyên (âm) đơn See more July 20, 2025

Nguyễn Thị Thanh Maian open studio by Nguyễn Thị Thanh Mai Faint Traces - September 28, 2025 September 6, 2025 Nguyễn Thị Thanh Mai Faint Traces —an open studio by talented Hue-based artist Nguyễn Thị Thanh Mai features Mai's most recent body of work as a further chapter in her decade-long research into the stateless Vietnamese communities residing in Cambodia. ➖ Opening Party: 6.30 pm, Saturday, September 6, 2025 ➖ Venue: Manzi Exhibition Space, ngõ Hàng Bún, Ba Đình, Hà Nội ➖ Opening hours: 11.00 – 19.00 (Tuesday – Sunday) * Free admission *Please note: the open studio is not suitable for audiences under 14 years old. First introduced in July 2025 at the Hiroshima House Art Gallery Project (Phnom Penh), Faint Traces comprises ongoing works across multiple media—video, photography, installation, and drawing. The project mobilizes heterogeneous source materials: colonial and postcolonial maps, cartographies, archival documents, and expert consultations, as well as the artist’s self-assembled repository of field notes, oral testimonies, site photographs & recordings and found objects within the community. Through these materials, the open studio revisits the marginal, often erased histories of Vietnamese diaspora communities in Cambodia. The intergenerational trajectories of these communities are inextricably entangled with Cambodia’s histories of colonial domination, armed conflict, and forced displacement, as well as the collective trauma of genocidal violence under the Khmer Rouge regime. Persistently, the community remains structurally relegated to the position of the outsider, if not actively erased, within dominant historical narratives. Building on her earlier projects concerning identity and belonging based on the specific case of the stateless paracitizens accepted neither by Vietnam nor Cambodia, with Faint Traces, Thanh Mai ‘makes its way back into their collective memories and oral histories, piecing together a blurred and expansive portrait of migration and displacement, one filled with myth and etched with traces of violence.’ (excerpt from the artist statement). While retracing tributaries back to their source, Thanh Mai resists the impulse to resolve origins, to weave a seamless continuum of meaning. Instead, she allows the materials to appear in their very fractures, obscurities, and dispersions, interweaving experimentations and imaginative interventions. The result is an archive that, while partial and fragmentary, remains mutable: shifting from one iteration of display to another, reassembling provisional points of contact where past events, present emotions, and the rhythms of the exhibition space resonate together. Yet, might such an endeavor remain no more than an effort to stitch together shards and fragments, flickering recollections, and unrealized dreams? Precariousness and estrangement are inescapable conditions, as all agents involved—the community itself, the artist, the researcher, and the spectator—inhabit the position of the outsider. Within this framework, Mai’s own stated aim “to keep these stories from dissolving into water” raises a critical question: what forms of resonance might persist? Perhaps precisely when the faint traces are seen, though they endure only as residue of what has already evaporated—irreversible, irretrievable—the void/blank space around them comes into being and becomes perceptible. And through that act of re-narration and re-imagining (painful as it is, often futile as it seems), the traces still bear witness to a life once lived. Was it not Dostoevsky, through his dreamer in White Nights, who confronted us with the question, "How can you ever live if you have no history/no stories to tell?" As for that remaining blank space—though obscure—it may, once recognized, still harbor the possibility that one day dreams might take root, and futures yet unformed might sprout and anchor themselves. ARTWORKS GALLERY _______________________________ "When my mother dreams of home, she dreams only of the house in Hải Phòng where she lived as a child. Though she spent the rest of her life in many other homes, not once did she dream of them. The subconscious is hazy, yet potent." I borrowed the words of a friend to give shape to my own questions and reflections on place and belonging – the very themes that sparked my interest in migration and its intergenerational reverberations, eventually guiding me back through history to the starting point of this research project. If Day by Day was an exploration and inquiry into identity and the often-overlooked experiences of the ethnic Vietnamese communities living on the Tonle Sap in Cambodia, then Faint Traces makes its way back into their collective memories and oral histories, piecing together a blurred and expansive portrait of migration and displacement, one filled with myth and etched with traces of violence. >>> CHECK OUT DETAILS OF WORKS IN THE CATALOGUE HERE OPENING NIGHT See more about artist(s) Nguyễn Thị Thanh Mai

Nguyễn Phi Phi Oanha series of new works by Phi Phi Oanh Arca Noa - February 5, 2023 December 24, 2022 Nguyễn Phi Phi Oanh Coming back to manzi after six years (since her solo exhibition ‘Scry ’ in December 2016), Phi Phi Oanh displays new results of her ongoing exploration in expanding the abilities and unfolding possibilities of the Vietnamese lacquer medium. ‘Arca Noa ’, features a series of 10 small and medium sized paintings from different series and two Lacquerscopes. "‘Arca Noa’ attempts to hold still and record, in lacquer form, our relationship to the earth and our will towards the domestication and objectification of nature around us. The works are conceived as vestiges of this epoch currently hanging in delicate balance and as iconography of its human centered gaze." The works here also explore a type of realism in lacquer based on repeated direct observation over many days and layers then sanding away like erosion - a journey simply reflects the passage of time, as well as fossilizes and preserves all the mental & visceral states of the artist along with the outer conditions of space. This whole process of continuous accumulation and subtraction, for Phi Phi Oanh, “leads to an image of the observed that seems to exist at different moments and times. While not tonally realistic like a photograph, this lacquer realism is more involved with the slippery ever changing experience of sight and of memory which I consider to be son ta’s major potential contribution to the field of painting. The paintings in ‘Arca Noa’ explore new representational models of son ta lacquer painting in both the physical (though experimentations on different materials and substrates) and in the symbolic (through what can be interpreted and a broadening of its theory). For Phi Phi Oanh, sơn ta lacquer is not an inert image - making medium rather it assembles a wide range of relationships in locality, culture, environment and nature. Objecthood versus dematerialization, domestication and possession, the physical embodiment of memory built to last, the correlations between the micro and the macro, between cherishing one’s own personal memories and questioning the position and scale of the human being, are some themes that run through Arca Noa. ARTWORKS GALLERY OPENING NIGHT See more about artist(s) Nguyễn Phi Phi Oanh

Nguyễn Văn Phúca new series of installations by Nguyễn Văn Phúc 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) Nguyễn Văn Phúc

An art-in-public project for Hanoi | Dự án nghệ thuật cho công cộng của Hà Nội. Taking artwork out of the galleries and onto the streets. Turning viewers into co-creators. WHAT: 1 city 10 site-specific, contemporary artworks 10 public spaces. Into Thin Air A public art project A public space is a space that does not belong to anyone, but at the same time, to all. It is a site that doesn’t just hold its inhabitants’ history and memory, but also reflects their personal and collective identity. It is a place that is often neglected or forgotten, but has the potential to become a zone for creativity and freedom. About “Into Thin Air” is a long-term public art project, initiated and curated by Manzi Art Space with a view to building awareness and appreciation for art – particularly contemporary art – among the public, to helping artists develop independent practices whilst encouraging their involvement in social development within the current context of Vietnam. Into Thin Air takes art and creativity outside of its conventional comfort zones (i.e. the museum, gallery, art space etc.) and into public spaces. For the project, all participating artists were asked to consider their everyday urban spaces, or places in Hanoi that are significant to them and their community, and create artistic interventions for the spaces. The artists were also asked to take into consideration the city’s historical, political and social characteristics, to be more open and socially engaging, and to make works which encourage the public to participate or interact with it. For the project, The first edition of Into Thin Air took place successfully from 9 to 19 April 2016 in Hanoi. Ten artworks and projects in the form of site-specific/context-responsive installations, interactive video works and sound installations were placed around Hanoi. A smartphone app was created, functioning as a “treasure map” to aid the audience in “hunting” for and getting information about the works. Following the success of the first edition of Into Thin Air, the second installment continues to explore the core format of the project. It also furthers and broadens its scope by tackling a different type of public space: the Internet. Into Thin Air’s 2nd edition includes a series of virtual artworks (virtual installations, performances, sound-walks and video arts) which will exist permanently in 10 of Hanoi’s public spaces. Audience can view/ interact with a given artwork through a free online application using augmented reality (AR) technology which can be downloaded to their phone or tablet. All artworks exist virtually yet are only accessible at a particular site. This 2nd edition looks to promote the diversity of cultural expression to reiterate the importance of creating an enabling environment that encourages individuals and society as a whole to get access to and enjoy a wide range of cultural activities. Explore Participating Artists See more Nguyễn Huy An Born in 1982 in Hanoi and graduated from the Vietnam Fine Art University in 2008, Nguyen Huy An is considered one of the most dynamic and innovative artists of his generation. Huy An’s work has been a process of trying to dig into the darkness of psychology. Most of his projects have been underpinned by an obsession with memory and the complexities of a pessimistic perspective. From installations, performance art to paintings and sculptures, Huy An’s works are highly acclaimed by international art critics and curators for their introspective, simple and strong concepts. Tạ Minh Đức Born in 1991 in Hanoi, Tạ Minh Đức graduated from the Hanoi Academy of Theatre and Cinema in 2014. His work questions notions of existence, human relationships, isolation of the individual, latent violence and domination. Jamie Maxtone-Graham Jamie Maxtone-Graham is a photographer and filmmaker who formerly worked in NY and LA. He is a Fulbright Fellow and has lived in Hanoi since 2007 with his wife and daughter working in a diverse practice of image making and occasionally running workshops. Vũ Ngọc Khải Khải is a professional dancer and choreographer who has been studying and working in Vietnam and Europe. Khải studied at the Dance School of Hanoi and in 2006 gained a full scholarship from the Holland General Consulate to study at the Rotterdam Dance Academy in the Netherlands. One year later, he gained a scholarship from the company for a special course focusing on training dancers and choreographers. Huy Trần Born to an artistic family, Huy Trần decided to pursue a professional dance career at a very young age. A 2006 graduate of the Vietnam Dance College, he worked for the Vietnam National Opera and Ballet (VNOB) and was eventually awarded a scholarship from Cinevox Junior Company in Switzerland where he studied until 2011, He then started to perform at the Ballet Hagen Theatre and the National Mannheim Theatre – Germany. He is currently working for the Pfalztheatre Kaiserslautern as a dancer and choreographer. Cao Thanh Lan Cao Lan is a versatile musician, she was trained as a classical contemporary music pianist (by Pierre-Laurent Aimard) in Cologne’s and in Brussels’ Conservatories, but finds her main interest in sound. She has been experimenting with analogue synthesizer, amplified objects, prepared marxophone, daxophone and low-tech electronics. Gregor Siedl Gregor Siedl was born in Vienna, Austria. He is deeply engaged in the field of experimental and improvised music. Through his explorations of extended techniques, preparations on the saxophone, clarinet and the use of extra-musical instruments such as game-calls and water, he has developed a unique voice in music. Gregor won first prizes as best improviser at the international music competitions XL-Jazz and Gent Jazz festival. He has been involved in experimental music, jazz and multi-disciplinary projects with performers, visual artists and artificial intelligence. Trí Minh Trí Minh started his career as a performing artist in the early 1990s, when he co-initiated Hanoi’s first jazz band, which performed for years in various venues across Vietnam’s capital. In the late 1990s, Trí Minh started experimenting with electronic music through collaborations with international artists performing as a solo artist and in various forms of collaborations in Vietnam and Europe. See more Maritta Nurmi Maritta is a Finish artist based in Hanoi. Her 25 years in Vietnam, together with an education in Finland both in natural sciences and visual arts have merged into an alchemist-like metallurgic experimentation in painting. Maritta equally enjoys exploring other genres of art, including ceramic art, wearable art, public art and community based art projects. She has exhibited in numerous countries across 3 continents. Nhung Nguyễn Nhung Nguyễn has been creating sonic waves in Hanoi’s underground music scene for the last couple of years. In addition to her solo projects, she has teamed up with artists working across various media and from around the world to add audio elements to visual experiences. Since 2014, Nhung has been releasing music under the project Sound Awakener and eventually under her real name. She has worked with labels such as Time Released Sound [US], Unknown Tones Records [US] Soft [FR], Flaming Pines [UK], Fluid Radio [UK] and Syrphe [Germany]. Christian Grothe Christian Grothe is a musician and music producer based in Berlin. He is producing and performing music under the alias Kryshe and collaborates with many artists, such as the trio Unland. His work combines trumpet, guitar and his voice with live electronics to create sound pieces for exploration and deep listening. Every piece is based on the use of improvisation and experimentation, to produce a variety of moods from soft and dreamy to dark and distorted. See more Nguyễn Oanh Phi Phi Born in Houston in 1979, Phi Phi Oanh received her BFA at Parsons School of Design (2002) and a Masters in Art and Investigation at the University of Madrid Complutense (2012). In 2004, she received a Fulbright Grant to study lacquer painting in Hanoi. Since then, Vietnamese lacquer has become central to her work, which focuses on its potential as a painting medium to convey memory or reflection, examine current theories of the image and expand into more experimental methods and scale. 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

Lê Xuân Tiếnan open studio by Lê Xuân Tiến on our pathway vol. 4 - September 30, 2023 September 8, 2023 Lê Xuân Tiến 𝐎𝐍 𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐏𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐖𝐀𝐘 - 𝐕𝐎𝐋.𝟒 an open studio by an emerging moving-image artist Lê Xuân Tiến 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘆: 06.30 PM Friday 08 Sep 2023 At Manzi Art Space, 14 Phan Huy Ích, Ba Đình, Hanoi 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗼 featuring ‘‘𝕊𝕟𝕠𝕨𝕪 𝕟𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥’ ’ - a series of videos, on view from 09 Sep until 30 Sep 11.00 AM - 07.00 PM (Tue - Sun) At Manzi Exhibition Space, 2 ngõ Hàng Bún, Ba Đình, Hanoi 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗲: screening short ‘𝕊𝕦𝕟𝕟𝕪 𝕕𝕒𝕪’ followed by an artist talk 03.30 PM 01 Oct at Manzi Exhibition Space, 2 ngõ Hàng Bún, Ba Đình, Hanoi ‘On our pathway’ is an on-going series that Lê Xuân Tiến has been working on since the end of 2019, up until now, 3 volumes have been completed. In the upcoming open studio at manzi, Tiến will introduce the latest developments of this project - Volume no.4 which he described as “born from a concept of a man lying inside a frozen lamb bone, in the snow”. The volume is composed of two bodies of works - a twin named ‘Snowy Night’ & ‘Sunny Day'. ‘Snowy Night’ consists of 14 videos arranged as a multi-channel installation while ‘Sunny Day’ is a 30-minute short film. ARTWORKS GALLERY "𝑇𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑠 𝑏𝑒𝑎𝑟 𝑓𝑟𝑢𝑖𝑡, 𝑓𝑟𝑢𝑖𝑡 𝑟𝑖𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑠, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑓𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑠. 𝐼 𝑝𝑖𝑐𝑘 𝑢𝑝 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑓𝑟𝑢𝑖𝑡𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑙𝑦 𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚: "𝑂𝑛 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑝𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑤𝑎𝑦." - Artist’s statement about his project ___________ >>> https://onourpathway.wordpress.com/ >>> https://lxtien.wordpress.com/ ❄ ❄ ❄ ❄ ❄ ❄ ❄ 📝 [VOLUME NO. 4 ] Snowy night awaiting for Sunny day >>> writing for the open studio OPENING NIGHT See more about artist(s) Lê Xuân Tiến

Lê Hoàng Bích PhượngA solo exhibition by LÊ HOÀNG BÍCH PHƯỢNG 08.09 - 02.10.2017 Beyond The Hills - October 2, 2017 September 8, 2017 Lê Hoàng Bích Phượng Marking her return to silk work after a deviation to ceramics stems, in ‘Beyond The Hills’, Phuong shows a series of delicate silk paintings and a minimalist installation, dealing with the question about concepts of self consciousness, time and personal space --- “he took his last breath and he was gone. I wondered what was going on - did he ever think about what he wanted to do in life for himself? Or was it just to raise the children and make money for the family? At that moment – as everyone was gathered - I saw this landscape, a full moon, above the forest.” - Le Hoang Bich Phuong – Ho Chi Minh City, August 2017, speaking about the moment her grandfather passed a month earlier. This dreamscape which materialised in front of Le Hoang Bich Phuong’s inner eye the moment her grandfather passed away is the subject of the delicate silk works that comprise ‘Beyond The Hills’ – a deeply personal series, rooted in her exploration of the Buddhist lineage she comes from. The new series is underpinned with spirituality that deals with the question that surfaced when she looked into how notions of self, space and meaning are created– where am I me? And in the context of her grandfather’s death: Where Are you between the before and after? What do you experience? How long does it last? What Le Hoang Bich Phuong attempts to comprehend and capture in her work are concepts of time and space that are in their very nature fleeting and cannot be contained (the present moment) or reached (the horizon). She says of the horizons she paints: “It’s a line, a surface and it is the space where mindfulness lives.” And the same goes for the present moment, “here is tomorrow, here is yesterday and here is now which belongs to nowhere.” The horizons painted in simple shapes, clean lines and colour choices are a figment of her imagination - a destination that can only be reached in one's mind. And though this place is meant as a space for the mind and the self to rest, the artist is also depicts the disruptions of a state of mindfulness in a way that is subtle yet significant – they render the soft purple (spirit) of her perfect space red (anger), abstract triangles turn from hills into spikes penetrating the full moon and there is a grotesque underworld eating away at the foundation of pristine landscapes. The Buddhist teaching that suffering is a part of life and to strive towards enlightenment is a quest to be liberated from suffering is present in the work: “How do we accept death and the circle of life and nirvana? You accept that you have to keep living. One afterlife after another, and your accepting that is mindfulness.” (Le Hoang Bich Phuong, Ho Chi Minh City, August 2017) Le Hoang Bich Phuong’s return to silk work after a deviation to ceramic stems from her discovery that her painting practice is a form of meditation. She paints slowly and calms down, turning to her work in moments of anger to see the emotion transformed. As with her self-portrait in the series, which too is rooted in her being forced out of her personal space by spats with and provocations from those closest to her. But in painting the emotions dissipate, only to enter the next cycle of calm followed by emotional upheaval. “When the emotion changes, the plan I had had, like an angry painting, whichshould be ugly turns pretty and gentle. Sometimes I stop there. Can you freeze a moment in time when painting is the thing that makes it evaporate?” (Le Hoang Bich Phuong, Ho Chi Minh City, August 2017) In its entirety ‘Beyond The Hills’ is deeply personal work both in subject and its production by an artist ready to listen to her intuition. Article written for the exhibition by Fabiola Büchele *This event is part of Manzi’s art programme supported by CDEF of the Danish Embassy in Vietnam ARTWORKS GALLERY BEYOND THE HILLS - ARTIST STATEMENT “‘Beyond the Hills’ is a journal of reflections of my most recent personal experiences. Experiences that include the flashes of lighting of loss and the faint remnants of life and death. These works compose a chapter of my psychological diary illustrated during the process of making the exhibition. Also present is the fierce protest of my inner core against a sudden intrusion by another individual of my personal space. My reaction was so strong and all encompassing that even a faint breath of the intruder could boil up my frustration. My raw sense of self and need for being undisturbed coincided with the passing of a member of my family. At the instance of death I was speechless and drifted into dreams where hills, the moon, and layers of grass appeared. In this series, I present all of these intangible emotions and experiences in the form of dreamscapes and shapes that provide a visual record of invisible concepts. I was intrigued by figures and forms subject to the rule of energetic regulations like the planets in our solar system - all of them in orbit around a particular centre that imposes limitations forcing them to trace rings. I believed that the proportions of these rings possess a source of energy that in turn protect the core that binds them. If individuals were to be at the centre of such systems of interconnectedness each individual universe would differ in proportion and trajectory – much like a mandala. Various cultures and scholars have used the concept of mandalas to display an individual’s universe in miniature. The perimeters of such a universe attracts thoughts and energies to gravitate towards its core, while at the same time defining a border which an intruder or visitor crosses when moving into an individual’s personal space. Whether the reaction is to welcome or to expulse and the change in attitude or emotion of the host largely depends on the pace of invasion. So close are the notions of private and public space in relation to the self that the elasticity of the spherical boundary allows the intrusion to a certain degree before determining whether to expel the invader. Each individual is a universe, shaped by the discovery of one’s own great cosmos. The protecting rings are increasingly contoured as you encounter other universes and define your ego in relation to them. And for one individual to penetrate the core of another he or she must overcome a lot of personality rings only to discover that each of them is made from the same materials as the rest of the galaxy. *** About the installation work INVADERS The installation represents an individual cosmos with rings around its centre. Limits are defined on the same plane and reflect all the layers covering the core. This personal space is arranged with the same structure as the solar system, with inner and outer rings, the sizes of which rely on each how the work is encapsulated in the exhibition space and how each individual viewer decides to interact with it. And with any intrusion the first steps into the circle is recorded and an alarm is sent to the core. The recurring depiction of a horizon in my works represents a space between heaven and earth that belongs to neither- it is ‘today’, as it sits between ‘yesterday’ and ‘tomorrow’ but can never be captured. The horizon reflects and senses all intrusion and all personal characteristics revolve around it without favouring of either day or night. It is here, at this unreachable place that I found shelter, a space free from the obligation of making a choice. Nestling in that space, I can be present in two worlds, without a sense of belonging to either. And it is here that the dream of my grandfather lives, one that I saw as he slipped from life. I stood on the landscape that materialised in front of me and promised myself that I would capture the image in paintings. MANDALA The mandala in my work is narrowed in scope than the images it is based on, which include Jung’s personality chart, Buddhist mandalas and the structure of planets in the solar system. There are parallels among inspirations from science, spirituality and human psychology, but my mandala refers only to the labyrinth at the depth of my psyche, which is at once a tranquil oasis and a room with so many doorways and directions that it is likely I will eventually lock myself in and shut myself away in the room of my own mind. Though from a different perspective, this may enable me to discover a brand new skyline shaped both by surroundings factors and inner conceptions at that particular moment. The self thus is a mandala reflecting itself and the other worlds it encounters. I am who I am, exactly as stipulated in DNA, but I realized I also hold the key to happiness in the centre of each cell in my body. OPENING NIGHT See more about artist(s) Lê Hoàng Bích Phượng

ink/watercolor Lê Đức Anh biography Lê Đức Anh was born in 1998 in Hanoi. Through his online persona 'Shade Panda', he shares his diverse artistic pursuits—photography, filming, and painting—on the internet. His works are often inspired by his surroundings, whether it's the people in his life, his home, or the nature and streets of Hanoi. Living in the internet age means his sources of inspiration are even more random and ever-expanding. Since 2020, he's been working with acrylic on paper as his main medium, alongside other pencil and ink sketches. works This artist currently has no available work at Manzi works C'mon LÊ ĐỨC ANH 2022 21 x 14.5 cm ink on paper Enquire works Dumb LÊ ĐỨC ANH 2022 21 x 14.5 cm ink on paper Enquire works Doctor sleep LÊ ĐỨC ANH 2022 21 x 14.5 cm ink on paper Enquire works Untitled No. V LÊ ĐỨC ANH 2022 15 x 10.5 cm ink on paper Enquire works Untitled No. III LÊ ĐỨC ANH 2023 23 x 43 cm marker on canvas Enquire works Coffee and Butter LÊ ĐỨC ANH 2024 60 x 60 cm acrylic on canvas Enquire works Sunset LÊ ĐỨC ANH 2021 29.7 x 21 cm acrylic on paper Enquire works Untitled 02 LÊ ĐỨC ANH 2021 29.7 x 21 cm acrylic on paper Enquire works Talking LÊ ĐỨC ANH 2022 21 x 14.5 cm ink on paper Enquire works Awkward LÊ ĐỨC ANH 2022 21 x 14.5 cm ink on paper Enquire works Junkyard LÊ ĐỨC ANH 2022 21 x 14.5 cm ink on paper Enquire works Untitled No. IV LÊ ĐỨC ANH 2022 10.5 x 15 cm ink on paper Enquire works Untitled No. II LÊ ĐỨC ANH 2023 12 x 18 cm marker on canvas Enquire works Fern LÊ ĐỨC ANH 2020 29.7 x 21 cm acrylic on paper Enquire works Untitled 06 LÊ ĐỨC ANH 2021 21 x 29.7 cm acrylic on paper Enquire related Catching Faces Faint Traces the sky, the sand, the lashing waves following the stone wall and we found an electric generator 6𝒗➡️¹/² The world as a draft The Fifth Cardinal Direction Spatium 47 Days, Sound-less in spaces of everyscape, at time without end </3 Hồi Sóng Birdsong on our pathway vol. 4 Entrusted Conjectures Hanoi 1985 - 2015, In The Years Of Forgetting Then and Now, Hanoi streets in transition 'Neo-Romanticism' More than Human #1 Arca Noa no-think The Four Subjects A saga of unrealised projects The dreamer: heterotopia, tabula rasa, noble silence (a part of ongoing project 0395A.ĐC) Through the looking glass what's going on at Manzi Tình See more October 5, 2025 Tình See more October 4, 2025 Bắt mặt | Catching Faces See more October 4, 2025 Tình See more October 3, 2025 Artist Talk vs Nguyễn Thị Thanh Mai See more September 27, 2025 Art Tour | Những Vệt Mờ / Faint Traces See more September 10, 2025 Những Vệt Mờ | Faint Traces See more September 6, 2025 Between the Strings See more August 5, 2025 sóng vỗ cát trời | the sky, the sand, the lashing waves See more August 1, 2025 Nguyên (âm) đơn See more July 20, 2025

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

biography Tuan Anh was born 1979 in Thanh Hoa and graduated from the University of Art and Design with a BA in Graphic Design in 2000 and mainly works as a painter and sculptor. For Tuan Anh, the countryside is his spiritual foundation and it forms the basis of his practice, dominating his perception and approach to art-making. Having relocated to Germany in 2013, the artist has been uprooted from his source of inspiration, leaving him in an in-between state, neither here nor there. This uncertainty is reflected strongly in Tuan Anh’s choice of current subject matters and materials. works This artist currently has no available work at Manzi works Enquire related Catching Faces Faint Traces the sky, the sand, the lashing waves following the stone wall and we found an electric generator 6𝒗➡️¹/² The world as a draft The Fifth Cardinal Direction Spatium 47 Days, Sound-less in spaces of everyscape, at time without end </3 Hồi Sóng Birdsong on our pathway vol. 4 Entrusted Conjectures Hanoi 1985 - 2015, In The Years Of Forgetting Then and Now, Hanoi streets in transition 'Neo-Romanticism' More than Human #1 Arca Noa no-think The Four Subjects A saga of unrealised projects The dreamer: heterotopia, tabula rasa, noble silence (a part of ongoing project 0395A.ĐC) Through the looking glass what's going on at Manzi Tình See more October 5, 2025 Tình See more October 4, 2025 Bắt mặt | Catching Faces See more October 4, 2025 Tình See more October 3, 2025 Artist Talk vs Nguyễn Thị Thanh Mai See more September 27, 2025 Art Tour | Những Vệt Mờ / Faint Traces See more September 10, 2025 Những Vệt Mờ | Faint Traces See more September 6, 2025 Between the Strings See more August 5, 2025 sóng vỗ cát trời | the sky, the sand, the lashing waves See more August 1, 2025 Nguyên (âm) đơn See more July 20, 2025

ink/watercolor Trương Tiến Trà biography Born in 1979 in Thanh Hoa, Truong Tien Tra graduated from the Hanoi Fine Arts University and the Surikov Moscow Art Institute in Russia. Having always been fascinated by the lives of those living on the margins of society, Tra observes them with great sympathy and exquisitely conveys their stories into his works. which are both semi-autobiographical and observational, at times even meditative. Oil paint is commonly used by the artist, however, recently he has become more interested in using traditional materials and techniques such as lacquer, silver-leaf etching and metal work and water colour on dó paper. At first glance, Truong Tien Tra’s works appear minimalistic, with deliberation on shape, color and composition, his tone evincing a forlorn spirit, a dislocation of modern man between rapid industrialisation and traditional belief systems. Notable exhibitions include Hanoi March Meeting, Vietnam and Thailand, 2018; ‘Zen’, L’Espace, Hanoi, Vietnam, 2017; ‘Linh Thú’, Hanoi, Vietnam, 2016; ‘Portrait’, Hanoi, Vietnam, 2012; ‘The Distorted Truth 2′, Suffusive Art Gallery, Hanoi, Vietnam, 2007; ‘Oil Paintings’, Cheongju Museum, Korea, 2007; ‘The Distorted Truth 1′, Suffusive Art Gallery, Hanoi, Vietnam, 2006. works This artist currently has no available work at Manzi works A Dream TRƯƠNG TIẾN TRÀ 2018 20 x 30 cm markers on paper Enquire works The man sitting on the red chair TRƯƠNG TIẾN TRÀ 2016 20 x 30 cm ink on dzo paper Enquire works Self portrait TRƯƠNG TIẾN TRÀ 2018 20 x 30 cm markers on paper Enquire works Relax time TRƯƠNG TIẾN TRÀ 2018 20 x 30 cm markers on paper Enquire works Self portrait TRƯƠNG TIẾN TRÀ 2018 20 x 30 cm markers on paper Enquire works Style up TRƯƠNG TIẾN TRÀ 2018 20 x 30 cm markers on paper Enquire works Friend TRƯƠNG TIẾN TRÀ 2017 20 x 30 cm markers on paper Enquire works Still Life TRƯƠNG TIẾN TRÀ 2018 20 x 30 cm markers on paper Enquire works Sitting asleep TRƯƠNG TIẾN TRÀ 2018 20 x 30 cm markers on paper Enquire related Catching Faces Faint Traces the sky, the sand, the lashing waves following the stone wall and we found an electric generator 6𝒗➡️¹/² The world as a draft The Fifth Cardinal Direction Spatium 47 Days, Sound-less in spaces of everyscape, at time without end </3 Hồi Sóng Birdsong on our pathway vol. 4 Entrusted Conjectures Hanoi 1985 - 2015, In The Years Of Forgetting Then and Now, Hanoi streets in transition 'Neo-Romanticism' More than Human #1 Arca Noa no-think The Four Subjects A saga of unrealised projects The dreamer: heterotopia, tabula rasa, noble silence (a part of ongoing project 0395A.ĐC) Through the looking glass what's going on at Manzi Tình See more October 5, 2025 Tình See more October 4, 2025 Bắt mặt | Catching Faces See more October 4, 2025 Tình See more October 3, 2025 Artist Talk vs Nguyễn Thị Thanh Mai See more September 27, 2025 Art Tour | Những Vệt Mờ / Faint Traces See more September 10, 2025 Những Vệt Mờ | Faint Traces See more September 6, 2025 Between the Strings See more August 5, 2025 sóng vỗ cát trời | the sky, the sand, the lashing waves See more August 1, 2025 Nguyên (âm) đơn See more July 20, 2025

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)