Worker, farmer, solider, repeat? Contemporary art after socialist realism
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21 June 2023
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Talk with Le Thuan Uyen
In the previous discussion, as part of our public program series for Illuminated Curiosities, Andrew Yang shed light on practices that are at the intersection of art and science. That said, the convergence of the two disciplines is not always visible as scientific knowledge can take a much more subtle form of influence. Much like other artists featured in the current exhibition, whose visual presentation may not reveal a direct link to science, Diem Phung Thi’s art-making methodology registers a logic en par with scientific processes. Known as one of the most important sculptors of Vietnam, Diem Phung Thi (1920–2002) started making art in Paris at the age of 39 after abandoning a career in dentistry. She is renowned for her radical yet minimal seven-module system – dubbed as seven characters, seven musical notes, or seven signs – which enabled countless possibilities of form. To what extent has her former training and practice influenced, or perhaps informed Diem Phung Thi’s artistic articulations?
Our speaker, Le Thuan Uyen, presents a preliminary account of Diem Phung Thi’s journey into the arts and how science, particularly her former practice, might have played a role in her art. Uyen also expands on the complex relationship between art and science in the mid-twentieth century in Europe, where Diem Phung Thi began her artistic endeavour.
This event is part of a series of public and education programs in association with Illuminated Curiosities, an exhibition organized by Nguyen Art Foundation.