Vertical Pump Station, graphite, acrylic, ink and coloured pencils on paper sized at 104x66cm, by Phạm Hà Ninh.

HÀ NỘI - Artist Phạm Hà Ninh will have a solo exhibition in Paris to introduce his project My Land, on March 28.

The exhibition entitled Fugitive Zone at Galerie BAQ marks the artist’s first solo exhibition in the heart of Paris, declaratively claiming space for a burgeoning My Land beyond its former boundaries.

My Land is a world-building project started in 2017, in which Ninh invents a world that refuses affiliation to any existing place or culture. There, the artist creates complete infrastructures, operating systems and codified measurements, as well as a formal history.

As a means of resisting stereotypes imposed on Vietnamese art, the artist only uses “neutral” materials such as paper, charcoal, paint, ink, and plastic (for 3D printing), as a way to erase all traces of his identity and background.

With Fugitive Zone, the artist utilises the existing structure of the gallery comprising a ground floor and a basement, transforming it into a place of total freedom inside of a meticulously manipulated zone.

Phạm Hà Ninh in his studio. Photo courtesy of the artist

Half of the exhibition space is only observable through a screen, broadcasted directly from the security camera installed in the basement.

For the artist, the transmitted images represent the boundary between the real and the imagined world. That flat screen is also the only pathway into a space where viewers can gauge actual depth, something that cannot be fathomed when looking at those maps of paradoxical terrains.

Ninh is a fine artist and arts educator. He earned his MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, USA in 2018. He received the Silver Medal for Young Talents of Vietnamese Fine Arts Universities in 2015 and the Murray Dessner Travel Award in 2018.

His notable exhibitions include Recursive Fables, A+ WORKS of ART, Kuala Lumpur; Institute of Distance, S.E.A Focus 2021, Tanjong Pagar Distripark, Singapore; Necessary Fictions, The Factory Contemporary Arts Centre, HCM City; and Cheat Codes, FRONT Art Space, New York.

He has participated in a wide range of residencies and projects including Programme de Réciprocité, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris; 3rd ASEAN Artists Residency Programme, ASEAN Secretariat, Jakarta; Residency, PLOP, London; and Visual Art Residency, The Corporation of Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, New York. 

The exhibition will run until May 4 at Galerie BAQ, 15 rue Beautreillis, 75004 Paris. - VNS