Nguyen Anh Tuan the creative connector

Day after day, curator Nguyen Anh Tuan works in a sunny upstairs room on the 2nd floor of Heritage Space (HS), Tho Nhuom Street (Hanoi). This space he and a group of artists rented together to share the cost reasonably. Both groups needed locations – which was very precarious, with no support for creative hubs in Hanoi. Now, after many “moving house”, Mr. Tuan and his student creative space can rest assured to implement art plans.

HS was originally a super-wide cultural space in a large building. Then how did the student move to a few places and then come here, sir?

Heritage was opened when a lover of culture and art returned from studying in Russia. She has a collection of paintings. HS was born for the love of culture and art, but when the female owner opened it, she found that it was not easy. Must have legal status, operation will consume space, human resources, investment. Therefore, at first, HS was a member organization of a large corporation, which is also an overseas operating model.

HS at that time was really beautiful and also had a lot of activities, what about revenue?

We have a gallery of 400 m²a library 290 m². Calculate the rental price at that time about 15 USD/m² then that’s a huge amount of money the corporation would have earned if it wasn’t a student. As for the collection of events, it is only temporary enough to maintain operations, with a salary for 1-2 friends to work with. We have a friendly space, with a stable, low price to support artists and cultural people.

Until we left, we had regular activities, nearly 100 events a year. There are events every month. There are more projects at the end of the year. We were very busy then, especially on weekends. As for here, I plan to change the direction of activities, to be more academic, such as opening art classes…

Location is always an issue with private sector creative hubs. Do you compare the activities of the creative space between the private and public sectors?

On the ground, the private creative spaces account for at least 60-70% of the activities of the creative spaces. The state creative space is too beneficial because it is facilitated in terms of culture, infrastructure, policies, etc. They are more proactive in resources, but the cultural exchanges are done by the private sector. The problem is the level of personnel.

I still remember that after 1990, fine art was the first place to exchange, to have the first exhibition in the US, and also the first in Europe. The first artists to go abroad for cultural exchange were also fine art artists. Many offers for cooperation, many invitations for lecturers to participate in educational and residency exchange programs. There is even a cooperation agreement where the German side spends all the money for 5 years, so that each year the university sends a few students and lecturers to Germany and vice versa. That’s it, but the School of Fine Arts doesn’t do it. After 1 year, they cut off the program because the VN side didn’t do anything.

With the current state of resources and human resources of the two sides, what will happen when there is a big event that the two creative blocks, the private and the state, will be able to sit together?

With models like now must definitely sit together. This is also the model of the German Documenta or regional events such as the Singapore Biennale, the Bangkok Biennale, all of which are public-private partnerships. The State holds resources in terms of authority and public resources. As in foreign countries, the culture ministries will organize a committee to decide all the orthodox activities of the year, the funds will be opened, the individual will receive what percentage of the funding, the organization How small and large are received. The Biennale also opened bids. The rest must have a policy for the business sector to sponsor the arts, have a social welfare policy for cultural development…

Hanoi a few years ago had the advantage of being the first creative city. But now, the other cities that are making their first creative city profiles have also developed a lot of creative activity.

Hanoi is a city with potential. But other preparations for creative industry development, policy and infrastructure, are yet to be seen. Without a significant investment, it will remain stagnant. Up to now, only the Cultural Center at 22 Hang Buom is significant, but the money is only a few billion. There should be projects, in which clearly plan what to do this year, next year, and next to have a specific result, so that Hanoi can be proud of it.

He started out as an art critic and researcher. Now he has become a liaison of cultural practices. What’s wrong with such a conversion?

When I worked at the Institute of Fine Arts, after only a few years I found there was nothing to do. Then I worked with Mr. Phan Cam Thuong as an assistant. I see no conditions for research in Vietnam. Research needs the data system, the library must be up-to-date. At the Institute of Fine Arts, I’m sure the first person who came up with the idea of ​​having to digitize all documents there from 2004 – 2005. At that time, digitization was very rudimentary, just used a scanner to convert PDF documents, typed codes. number to be able to access on the system. The school then deploys to a ministerial project that eventually runs nowhere, no one can access it. At that time, it was necessary to look up on the electronic platform, going to the monument also needed a change process.

But when he went to connect cultural practices, what process was there?

Yes, we also learned this by ourselves. In Vietnam, art project organization is completely new. When I was at the hospital, I started working outside, working with artists, working with them, studying and working at the same time. Back then it was working with a group of sculptors. The New Form group was made by sculptor Dao Chau Hai and a group of students, who later became good sculptors such as Khong Do Tuyen and Thai Nhat Minh. I developed the project with them in the hope of changing the perception of sculpture, of shaping, of space. As simple as that, changing the definition of sculpture is not a round statue, or something that is placed on a pedestal. It is an element of space, many different materials, different scenes.

The project has many advantages and disadvantages. That is also a journey, when Vietnam does not have a training program. The generation of Mr. Tran Luong and Nhu Huy also studied and worked, they went abroad to work, observe and apply in Vietnam. But since the time of Do Tuong Linh and Ace Le, they have had the opportunity to study abroad and some have studied directly in curation.

He is working on a project on art data. How is the project now?

This art data project focuses on contemporary art only, developed from the end of 2019. The data will be updated and posted online for everyone to access for free. We also built the website and put up the first artists, about 21 artists.

Where do you get the resources to do such a project?

I have a cultural exchange program in the UK funded by the British Council. But due to the Covid-19 epidemic, I could not travel and I would like to transfer that money to do this project. Subsequently, the Goethe-Institut introduced an international cultural relief fund of the German Foreign Office that supports global cultural organisations. I got that for 2 years and currently there is no sequel.

During the process of working on an art documentary project, is there an art story that touched or surprised you?

Not to be surprised, because I’ve also worked with artists a lot, locating who and where. But there are also works that over time are still touching. For example, a series of works by Mr. Nguyen Minh Phuoc with workers. He invites them over, writes on shirts, writes on each other’s backs, writes on walls. He talks about fate, looking back on how difficult it is.

Or have a performance of the work Bridge of twin brothers Le Brother on Hien Luong Bridge. They made works in 3 places, first at Hien Luong bridge, later in Korea, Germany – countries temporarily divided by war. They lived in Quang Tri and attached themselves to Hien Luong Bridge, witnessing the breakdown of that war zone, which many years later still has not fully recovered. In the live performance two people run from opposite ends of the bridge and interact, themselves as twins, two as one, themselves as a country with two parts.

Looking back, there are works like that and there are people who were very popular when they were active but have stopped completely.

Thank you Sir!