A corner at “The Showcase: Dan Ni” exhibition. The exhibition will be opened in HCM City for free. — VNS Photo

HCM CITY —  “The Showcase: Dan Ni” exhibition offers the community a chance to admire the world of everyday artefacts, urban solitude and forgotten presences.

Opening at GốcLab art space at the Toong workplace at 1bis Phạm Ngọc Thạch in District 1, the exhibition is a mixed media installation which blurs the lines between art space and living space, boldly realising the concept of "art as breath" of curator GốcCreation.

The event marks three consecutive months of The Showcase, where notable and emerging art projects are introduced to the public.

Titled 'left in the wake', The Showcase: Dan Ni exhibits photography by visual artist Dan Ni, written words by jj soa and sound installation by Nhung Nguyễn (Sound Awakener). 

The exhibition is centered on artefacts that lie on the fringes of urban reality: closed shops, invoices, random hanging clothes, depicting the feelings of loneliness and missed connections. At the same time, the artist also tells the story of poetic materials such as silk and scrap paper. 

Curator GốcCreation puts the exhibition in the heart of the business space of contemporary intellectuals, conveying the message of the ambiguity of in-between and lonely distractions. The audience that approaches the art installation will not only actively view and contemplate, but also directly exist and breathe in the interwoven space between life and art.

“The Showcase: Dan Ni” shows the improvisational ability of the curators as they flexibly change the audience's interactions with the art. The exhibition transforms the common space of a work environment into another world where art can simultaneously live and be awakened. There, the audience not only sees and enjoys the artwork, but also goes into it, utilises, lives and works within it. The organisers have boldly opened a gateway so that the office intelligentsia can incorporate the artwork to their daily working behavior.

Replacing “the white cube ", The Showcase allows people to go inside, live and rest with art. This is how curators and urban developers bring art closer to the daily life of contemporary entrepreneurs and intellectuals, instead of alienating new ideas.

The Showcase: Dan Ni will be open until May 17. Entry is free. VNS