Vincom Center for Contemporary Art

• Time: 14:30 - 16:00, Sunday, January 19, 2025
• Location: Vincom Center for Contemporary Art  (VCCA), B1-R3, Vincom Mega Mall Royal City, 72A Nguyễn Trãi, Thanh Xuân, Hà Nội
• Free admission.
• The talk will be in English, with Vietnamese translation available
• Registration link: https://forms.gle/mCgaSz7Krnqm4Y8f9

VCCA is delighted to present the event “Embodied Curatorial: with, within, without walls”, featuring curators Lumi Tan and Đỗ Tường Linh.

This discussion will explore Lumi Tan's diverse curatorial practices across various contexts throughout her career, spanning avant-garde non-profit art spaces like The Kitchen (New York), corporate-styled art models like Luna Luna, and her independent projects. Lumi Tan’s work reflects a deep interest in the roles of organisers, spaces, and curators in crafting unique opportunities for artists to transcend and expand beyond the visible and invisible boundaries of the white cube spaces (*). 

More than simply caretakers of artworks, curators can act as dynamic agents, bringing art into interdisciplinary intersections, stretching seemingly impenetrable boundaries, and fostering multi-layered dialogues. 

Moderated by curator Đỗ Tường Linh, the talk will also address concerns surrounding artistic labour within the international context, as well as lessons from Vietnam with the goal of cultivating a diverse and sustainable artistic ecosystem. 

*White cube: Refers to a certain gallery aesthetic characterised by its square or oblong shape, white walls and a light source usually from the ceiling (tate.org.uk).

Curator Lumi Tan

Lumi Tan is a curator and writer based in New York City. She is the curator for the 2026 Converge45 citywide exhibition in Portland, Oregon and the curator for Frieze Focus New York. Tan recently served as the Curatorial Director of Luna Luna, a revival of the world’s first art amusement park created by André Heller in 1987 and exhibited in Los Angeles in 2024. Previously, she was Senior Curator at The Kitchen, New York, where she organized exhibitions and produced performances with artists including Kevin Beasley, Meriem Bennani, Gretchen Bender, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Autumn Knight, Moor Mother, Sondra Perry, The Racial Imaginary Institute, Kenneth Tam, Danh Vo, and Anicka Yi. 

Tan has also held positions at the Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain Nord Pas-de-Calais, France; Zach Feuer Gallery, New York; and MoMA/P.S.1, New York. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Artforum, Frieze, Mousse, Cura, and numerous exhibition catalogues. She was the recipient of 2020 VIA Art Fund Curatorial Fellowship, and has been visiting faculty at School of Visual Arts, New York; Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, and Yale School of Art. 

Curator Đỗ Tường Linh

Do Tuong Linh is a curator, art researcher, writer based between Hanoi (Vietnam) and New York City (United States). Linh holds a BA in Art History and theoretical criticism from Vietnam University of Fine Arts and a MA in Contemporary Art and Art Theory of Asia and Africa at SOAS (University of London), UK with the prestigious Alphawood scholarship. She is a part of Bard Curatorial Studies program class of 2025 and was part of the curatorial team of 12th Berlin Biennial.

Linh has engaged in various art exhibitions and projects in Vietnam, Southeast Asia, Europe and beyond since 2005. She is a fellow researcher for Site and Space in Southeast Asia – a research project run by the Power Institute, University of Sydney, Australia funded by Getty Image Foundation, USA. She participated in many international cultural arts programs such as Le 18 curator in residency 2024, Asia Cultural Council research fellowship 2023, Ljubljana Graphic Art Biennial 2019, Slovenia; Association of Art Museum Curators conference, New York, USA; Mekong Cultural Hub 2018 – 2019, Taiwan; CIMAM International Museum Workshop 2018, Oslo, Norway; Asia Culture Center (Gwangju, Korea) 2018; Tate Intensive 2018, Tate Modern Museum, UK; French Encounter at Art Basel in Hong Kong 2018. … Some of her notable curated exhibitions include Who is weaving the sky net (Singapore), Means of Production 2024 (New York City, USA), Revived Photo Hanoi 2023 (Hanoi, Vietnam), Berlin Biennale 2022 (Berlin, Germany), Citizen Earth 2020 (Hanoi, Vietnam), The Foliage 3 & 4 (VCCA, Vincom Center for Contemporary Arts, Hanoi, Vietnam) 2019, Geo-Resilience of the All-world at La Colonie (Paris, France) 2018, No War, No Vietnam exhibition at Galerie Nord (Berlin, Germany) 2018, SEAcurrents (London, UK) 2017.