Thảo Nguyên Phan

Thảo Nguyên Phan

Historia

Trained as a painter, Phan is a multimedia artist whose practice encompasses video, painting and installation. Drawing from literature, philosophy and daily life, Phan observes ambiguous issues in social conventions and history. She started working in film when she began her MFA in Chicago. Phan exhibits internationally, with solo and group exhibitions including WIELS (Brussels, 2020), Rockbund Art Museum (Shanghai, 2019); Lyon Biennale (Lyon, 2019); Sharjah Biennial (Sharjah Art Foundation, 2019); Gemäldegalerie (Berlin, 2018); Dhaka Art Summit (2018); Para Site (Hong Kong, 2018); Factory Contemporary Art Centre (Ho Chi Minh City, 2017); Nha San Collective (Hanoi, 2017); and Bétonsalon (Paris, 2016), among others. She was shortlisted for the 2019 Hugo Boss Asia Art Award. In addition to her work as a multimedia artist, she is co-founder of the collective Art Labor, which explores cross disciplinary practices and develops art projects that benefit the local community. Thao Nguyen Phan is expanding her “theatrical fields”, including what she calls performance gesture and moving images. Phan is a 2016-2017 Rolex Protégée, mentored by internationally acclaimed, New York-based, performance and video artist, Joan Jonas.

Perfil

Thảo Nguyên Phan

Películas

First Rain, Brise-Soleil
First Rain, Brise-Soleil
Director
The film opens with the fictional narrative of a Vietnamese-Khmer construction worker who specializes in brise-soleil, the concrete lattices for shading and ventilating buildings that, in cities like Ho Chi Minh City (before 1976 named Saigon), unite a traditional Vietnamese building technique with a modern material linked to US domination. The film’s second half, set during the 18th century’s feudal wars, centers on a folkloric love story between a Vietnamese medicinal healer and a Khmer woman that unfolds around the symbolic significance of a durian (or “thouren”) fruit, a major product of the Mekong Delta.
Becoming Alluvium
Becoming Alluvium
Editor
In this emotionally charged contemplation on the glory and the tragedy of the Mekong River, different levels of real and imaginary worlds are brought together. Khmer folk tales, local lore and stories about reincarnation are told through vibrant watercolour animations and observations of daily life. Imbued with a sense of ecological responsibility toward the agricultural realities of the Mekong delta, they reveal a poetic but nonetheless biting consideration of Vietnam's troubled history.
Becoming Alluvium
Becoming Alluvium
Director
In this emotionally charged contemplation on the glory and the tragedy of the Mekong River, different levels of real and imaginary worlds are brought together. Khmer folk tales, local lore and stories about reincarnation are told through vibrant watercolour animations and observations of daily life. Imbued with a sense of ecological responsibility toward the agricultural realities of the Mekong delta, they reveal a poetic but nonetheless biting consideration of Vietnam's troubled history.
Mêkông Mechanical
Mêkông Mechanical
Director
Depicting the night shift of a young female worker processing cat fish in a factory in Tien Giang province, Mekong Delta, southern Vietnam, "Mêkông Mechanical" presents a day-dreaming journey of the worker, constructed from the perspective of the artist, who intertwines scenes outside of the factory with a single footage of the worker straightening the fish fillets in the assembly line. The footage is gradually slowed down, challenging viewers’ perception while commenting on the industrialization of food processing and its impact on the Mekong Delta region.