Nha San Collective is the first and longest-running, non-profit, artist-run space for experimental art that was realized in the political scene in Vietnam. It has been a pioneer in facilitating an experimental art movement and in promoting contemporary culture.
Background In 1998, artist or curator Tran Luong and artist Nguyen Manh Duc founded Nhà Sàn Studio, the first experimental art space in Hanoi at Nguyen Manh Duc's own home: Muong ethnic minority house on wooden stilts.
Nha San studio nurtured the first generation of Vietnamese avant-garde artists emergent in the early 1990s, including Truong Tan, Tran Luong, Nguyen Van Cuong, Nguyen Minh Thanh, Nguyen Quang Huy, Ea Sola, and Kim Ngoc. It has also become a valuable resource for a younger generation of artists, including Nguyen Trinh Thi, Nguyen Phuong Linh, Nguyen Huy An, Tuan Mami the Appendix, Nguyen Tran Nam, etc. to continue developing their own cultural scene. Nhà Sàn Studio has proved to be a near-perfect place to host underground alternative art exhibitions and events in the local scene.
Following the spirit of artistic creativity and contemporary culture, the young generation of artists from Nha San Studio in 2013 decided to form 'Nhà Sàn Collective', continuing the mission of Nha San Studio to build a stable structure for contemporary art to grow in the restrictive cultural and political environment of the local scene. Just as Nha San Studio before, Nha San Collective is still a place for experimental art, but under a more open approach, where everybody can come to work and exchange knowledge with each other.
Nha San offers Vietnamese artists the chance to create, exhibit and respond to work. In a socio-political environment where experimental art can be a risky endeavor, Nha San provides the crucial space needed for developing artistic practices, sharing experiences – both invigorating and engendering an artistic community that is hungry for change. It provides Vietnamese artists with the opportunity to collaborate with international artists creating a cultural exchange, and networks to develop, and learn from the world beyond the country's border. Since 1998, Nha San has hosted many exhibitions, open studios, workshops, lectures, and talks of local and international artists/ curators. Some highlight events such as: Asia Window 2002, Emerging artist program every year, IN:ACT international performance art event, Skylines With People 2012...
History Nha San Studio When Nguyen Manh Duc browsing through the exhibition named Khởi Thủy (The beginning) in St. Joseph's Cathedral's neighborhood in Hanoi by Tran Luong, he knew that this new art form could leave a more profound impact on the spectators. It could facilitate stronger and more direct communication between the artist and the public. He realized that the thoughts and imagination weren't limited to an existing framework. At the time, visual arts were limited to the canvas frame, as the Vietnamese art scene was heading towards a deadlock. Arts in Vietnam were very much commercialized. Artists developed and became famous through the means of selling their paintings, and competition was measured by who made their works more sellable. So Nguyen Manh Duc and Tran Luong, worked together on making Nha San Studio possible. Physical space was the foundation, so that they could turn ideas into reality. Nha San Duc, and later renamed as Nha San Studio in 1998, was born out of that need.
In 1998, a lot of artists gathered here: the young, the mid-career ones, classical artists, and many others. And on the opening of an exhibition, Tran Luong stood up and announced that this space – Nha San Studio – was open for all artists. Nha San's activities were not limited to fine arts. It was truly a place for all kinds of artists.
At that time Nha San was considered a center for contemporary arts in Hanoi. Here, the artists who wanted to realize their passions, or to venture with their newly explored ideas, they felt more comfortable and more welcomed, as an artistic space for artists to engage in interdisciplinary and experimental ways of art making. When an artist wants to create an installation to challenge himself, then he can use the space at Nha San for his experimentation. Nha San, in essence, was more like a working studio, dynamic exhibition space, acting as an underground conduit for Hanoi's contemporary art scene, connecting artists to opportunities for an exchange abroad to exhibit and partake in residency programs.
Formation of Nha San Collective Nha San supported the development of the first generation of contemporary artists in Vietnam, but in 2010 it was forced to close. During the IN:ACT festival, one of the artists created a performance where she was entirely naked in public. pictures of the performance were carelessly publicized, without any background information or explanation. It generated an enormous scandal that was broadcast on television, written about in magazines, and even worse, it attracted pornography sites. Media scrutiny turned to the political shutdown of all of Nhà Sàn's exhibition activities. But still, Nhà Sàn artists tried to adapt their creative process and found other ways to continue working, realizing the role of an alternative art space while providing important individual and collective support to the artistic practices of their peers. The young generation artists formed Nhà Sàn Collective. the place has changed, but the group has stayed the same.
There are two parts to the term "Nha San Collective". Collective means a group, and Nha San represents a group of artists who together built Nha San Studio originally. They are a group of 10 younger artists and together with the older generations, sharing the studio – working space with each other.
As there is not yet any course on contemporary art of curatorial practice in Vietnam, none amongst the first generation of Nha San artists were trained to be art managers or curators. They all picked things up along the way, did all the things that needed to be done to support their work. Nha San Collective has marked a new development as young artists were now organisers and curators themselves. The young artists who have grown up in a modern time. They've made an impact on the creative environment and expanded it as well.
Nha San artist/curator Nguyen Phuong Linh said: "A physical space is essential, but is not too important to influence our way, our society of art. We have here a legacy, a name, a history of 15 years. When the people look at Nha San, they would not see it as an academy, but an art center. So now, if there is no more a physical place of Nha San, the spirit, identity and artists of Nha San still exist out there."
Nha San Collective at Zone 9 In 2013, Nhà Sàn opened in an abandoned medicine factory in Zone 9 of Hanoi. After 'Skylines with flying people' – though a highly experimental and considerably interactive project, the space still belonged to Japan Foundation. Therefore, the Collective artists were anxious about having a new space. They shared their thoughts with other artists in finding another location, somewhere to keep their activities going on.
At the end of April 2013, the Collectives found out about National Medicine Factory No. 2 at number 9 Tran Thanh Tong, which were open for rental after being abandoned for 2,3 years. So they decided to rent a space of 150m2, and together turned it into it a working factory and an exhibition space. Started from zero, building up from scratch, setting up the space, programming, deciding which artists to invite, finalizing the working plan for all the artists in one year. Nha San Collective was also keen to find and nurture young people who have a passion for experimental art, organizing workshops for emerging artists with constructive critique.
As Nha San developed beyond the traditional operational model, aimed to pursue the path towards multi platforms and internationally engaged artistic activities. However, they have faced a lot of challenges, in terms of techniques, theories, infrastructure, as well as social acceptance. The artists here still have to select and organize art events by themselves. They are the ones who understand clearly what difficulties they have to face, and what kind of help they need. It would take a long time to change these conditions in Vietnam. Over the course of six months at Zone 9, Nha San Collective organized 2 festivals, 11 exhibitions, 13 times of open studios and 2 festivals.
All the programs had been planned and were gradually operating. But suddenly there was a fire accident which killed 6 people. This accident led directly to the closing of Zone 9 which forced everybody to get out of this space in December 2013.
Nha San Collective at 24 Ly Quoc Su Nhà Sàn is confronted with the difficulties of being a non-commercial art spaces, lack of funding and a supporting legal system. Despite these challenges, its artists show how creatively prolific they can be. After Zone 9, Nha San Collective moved to 24 Ly Quoc Su, in the middle of Hanoi old quarter. In celebration of the new space, Nha San organized the group exhibition "The Clouds Will Tell," showcasing the works of young artists from the Collective and other collaborators. Nha San Collective since then has continued to organize a variety of events, such as workshops, open studios, artist talks, screenings, exhibitions and more.
Nha San Collective at Hanoi Creative City In August 2015, Nhà Sàn Collective moved to a new space located in the cultural complex of Hanoi Creative City. The opening event was the interactive exhibition "from.to." live-streamed videos of durational performances. While an actual space is necessary to the many layers of the Collective's practices, they have learned to adapt. Nhà Sàn artist has formed themselves into a band of nomadic creative practitioners
The Collective Nguyen Phuong Linh Nguyen Phuong Linh was born and raised at Nha San studio – the first non-profit studio for experimental art in Vietnam, and perhaps the most prominent art space in Hanoi. Linh has been absorbed in an artistic environment by living among and working with many of the respected contemporary artists of the Vietnamese art scene. She has demonstrated a deep understanding and involvement in the local art community both as an artist and an art organizer.
Phuong Linh's works are sensual, poetic, fragmented, humble and exalted. Her work contemplates upon the visible/invisible truth, form and time and conveys pervasive sense of dislocation. They concern stories that had been forgotten or buried or things that are so insignificant that they never reach our subconscious.
Linh has participated in various exhibitions and art projects in Vietnam, countries in Asia, Europe as well as US, such as Japan, Korea, India, China, Germany, England, France, and Italy. In 2009, she exhibited the first solo exhibition Salt at Galerie Quynh Vietnam. In 2011, Linh participated in 11th Winds of Artist in Residence at Fukuoka Asian Art Museum with a solo exhibition Dust. In 2012 she presented project Home in the exhibition Hinterlands at the Luggage Store Gallery in San Francisco, USA. In 2013, she participated in the large exhibition HIWAR, 25th anniversary of Darat Al Funnun in Amman, Jordan
Since 2010, Linh organized and curated programs at Nha San. She found and organized IN:ACT, the annual international performance art festival in Hanoi. In 2012, she organized Skylines With Flying People, one of the most ambitious contemporary art events in Vietnam in the last decade with local and international artists and curators from Vietnam, Japan, Germany, US, Serbia, Shanghai, and Korea at Japan Foundation, Nha San Studio, Goethe Institute, Manzi Art Space and many public sites in Hanoi. In 2013, together with her colleague Tuan Mami, Linh co-found Nha San COLLECTIVE, a group of young experimental artists.
Nguyen Manh Hung