Vincom Center for Contemporary Art

"Earth”, as an artistic medium, is not a novel concept. In fact, it was the very first material that mankind used in the creation of art since the ancient cave paintings. However, this 'return to the origins' has become a path for many modern artists’ practices, especially groundbreaking figuresfrom the early 20th century art such as Picasso, Modigliani, Brancusi, Der Blaue Reiter group…, who rediscovered the transformative potential of art during that period.

Therefore, Lý Trực Sơn’s exploration of earth, is not merely choice of material or a shift of style, butalso an anthropological approach. Earth is both an artistic material and a cultural symbol, a way toexpress a deep connection to the origins and the Vietnamese national identity. Earth is a symbol of survival, attached to the working life and primitive creativity of people on the fertile land of the delta plain.

However, within the harmony of the materiality of ‘earth’ with the abstract language of painting,another ultimate ontological problem arises - what is the true meaning of the work? With abstractpaintings, the meaning of the piece is not always portrayed by the artist, as there is always an eternal void for the viewers to fill with their own thoughts and emotions" (Art researcher Phạm Minh Quân).

You are invited to join the art tour of "EARTH" by artist Lý Trực Sơn which will take place at11:00 on November 3 at the Vincom Center for Contemporary Art (VCCA). The tour will be like "a 'field trip', where each participant will delve into each layer and interpret for themselves a separate tectonic meaning for each work - viewing the paintings is a journey of self- discovery".

About the instructor

Phạm Minh Quân is an art researcher, currently a lecturer at the Faculty of Art and Design, School of Interdisciplinary Sciences and Arts (Vietnam National University, Hanoi), and Deputy Director of the Institute of Cultural Anthropology. He is the editor and co-author of many monographs, a book translator, and writes essays and scientific articles in the fields of cultural anthropology, theory,criticism, and art history. Notable works include: Cultural Anthropology in Vietnam - Process and Research

(co-editor, 2024), Fine arts and applied arts in Vietnam in the first half of the 20th century - From the perspective of art education (co-author, 2024), Viewing paintings (Susan Woodford,translated, 2023), The player (Johan Huizinga, translated, 2023), Principles of art history (Heinrich Wölfflin, translated, 2022), Memoirs of an art dealer (Ambroise Vollard, translated, 2022), Primitive thinking (Franz Boas, translated, 2020), Sex and repression in barbaric societies (Bronislaw Malinowski, translated, 2019), Cultural patterns (Ruth Benedict, translated, 2018)...

• FREE. All Welcome
• Time: 11:00-12:00, Sunday November 3, 2024
• Location: Vincom Center for Contemporary Art (VCCA), B1-R3 floor, Vincom Mega MallRoyal City, 72A Nguyen Trai, Thanh Xuan, Hanoi
• Registration link: https://forms.gle/LcGwBPFmtzS9m8oq6