Artist Thao Nguyen Phan: Learning From Past Lives | Louisiana Channel

Thao Nguyen Phan looks to the past to understand the present. Intertwining myth and reality, fact and folklore, she revives the untold stories of Vietnam’s turbulent past.

"I'm interested in how history and reality are written and perceived," she states as she sits down to unveil some of the layers of her practice.

In her delicate watercolor paintings, silk works, and video installations, Phan invites audiences to reconsider how concepts like history and reality are created. By turning to forgotten oral histories and changing the perspective from which we perceive historical events, Phan seeks to challenge how conventional history is written. "Even something extremely mundane, like the life of an animal or the spirit of a tree, could have the same weight and importance as a major historical event," she explains.

Phan's artistic approach is rooted in her upbringing in a Buddhist family, which also permeates her relationship with time. She notes, "The way I perceive time in the Asian context is more circular. Like tides going up and down." One way in which Phan challenges Western notions of linear time is through her moving image works:

“For example, in the video piece Becoming Alluvium, I try to manifest my understanding of time through a series of reincarnations. Reincarnations in a literal way, in which the characters in the film transform and reincarnate into different lives. So basically, if I add another life, the story can be expanded to an infinite point.”

Thao Nguyen Phan (b. 1987) lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Originally trained in lacquer painting, Phan's works span multiple disciplines, including artist moving images, which she studied under American video artist Joan Jonas as a 2016-2017 Rolex Protégée. In 2019, Phan was shortlisted for the Hugo Boss Asia Art Award, and in 2018 she was granted the Han Nefkens Foundation-LOOP Barcelona Video Art Production Award, in collaboration with Fundació Joan Miró. Phan has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions worldwide, including Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan; Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen; Tate St Ives, Cornwall; and The 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, The Milk of Dreams.

Thao Nguyen Phan was interviewed by Nanna Rebekka in Phan’s solo exhibition Reincarnations of Shadows at Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Thao Nguyen Phan was interviewed by Nanna Rebekka in her exhibition Reincarnations of Shadows, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Producer and editor: Nanna Rebekka
Cinematographer: Jarl Therkelsen Kaldan

Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2023

Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling, and Fritz Hansen.

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