» Fire truck (URAL)

Through Nguyen Manh Hung’s finely rendered realist style and signature satirical tone, Fire Truck (URAL) transforms the familiar image of a fire engine into a paradoxical metaphor: the vehicle is mounted on massive turtles, each facing a different direction. The scene evokes a humorous yet uneasy dilemma: if the turtles were to move, they would pull the fire truck apart, tearing this symbol of urgency and speed into scattered fragments.

In the vein of Hung’s characteristic irony, the work becomes a meditation on disagreement and internal conflict among independent individuals – each with their own trajectory and point of view – when forced to act collectively. It reflects the artist’s sustained interest in the tension between personal will and communal necessity, between the chaotic rhythms of modern life and the persistent effort to find consensus. Here, conflict does not merely obstruct; it generates an image that is at once humorous and tragic, turning collective action into a stark stage for contemplating the strangeness of the human condition.