Thu Van Tran

Born in Hanoi (Vietnam) in 1979, Thu-Van Tran lives and works in Paris. In the early 2000s, while studying at the Beaux-Arts in Paris, she discovered what she calls the 'cursed side' of classical sculpture: the opulence of monumental bronzes, the systematic destruction of moulds and dies whose ghostly forms persist only in negative. From then on, this logic permeated the artist's entire practice. Just as her rubber rubber moulds, her photograms, films and stories always reveal the memory of an imprint or a vanished hold. These include the successive occupations that left their mark on Vietnam, which she left at the age of two. A polymorphous artist, Thu-Van Tran approaches both materials and words as open spaces: her explorations and semantic associations give rise to plastic forms that enable her to interweave personal and collective histories.

The exhibition "Thu-Van Tran. Nous vivons dans l'éclat" at the MAMAC highlights the main aspects of her work: an artistic universe imbued with her dual Franco-Vietnamese culture; the shared history of the two countries and the visible or invisible heritage still inscribed in language and bodies in Vietnam; the lasting transformation of landscapes and the issues raised around living things. The exhibition interweaves historical narratives and personal mythologies, with existing works and new productions reproduced in this catalogue.

Texts by Hélène Meisel, art historian, critic and curator, Sohrab Mohebbi, writer, curator and director of the SculptureCenter; interview with the artist and Hélène Guenin, director of the MAMAC Nice.