Danh Vo
dal 22/5/2013 al 17/8/2013
Segnalato da
22/5/2013
Danh Vo
Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris - MAM, Paris
Go Mo Ni Ma Da (Good morning, Madame). Appearing highly personal at first glance, his work is in fact powerfully political. Built around the circulation of values, be they material, economic, symbolic or spiritual, the artist's oeuvre reveals, too, the complexity of the interchange between peoples in the context of post-colonial society.
Exhibition curator: Angeline Scherf
The Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris is presenting an exhibition
devoted to artist Danh Vo, born in Vietnam in 1975.
Appearing highly personal at first glance, the work of Danh Vo is in fact powerfully
political. Neither direct nor confrontational, his practice explores the power games
underlying liberal societies, the rules governing those societies, and the fragility of the
nation-state idea. Built around the circulation of values, be they material, economic,
symbolic or spiritual, the artist’s oeuvre reveals, too, the complexity of the
interchange between peoples in the context of post-colonial society.
His installation Go Mo Ni Ma Da revolves around four groups of works:
- We The People is a life-size reproduction of the Auguste Bartholdi’s Statue of
Liberty, inaugurated in 1886. Thirty copper fragments are presented in the exhibition,
together with photographs taken by Bartholdi in Egypt.
- Three chandeliers conjure up the ballroom of the Hotel Majestic, where the Paris
Peace Accords between the United States and Vietnam were signed on 27 January
1973.
- In a work referencing Théophane Vénard (1829-1861), the artist evokes the Paris
Foreign Missions Society, a body of Catholic missionary priests functioning in Asia
since the 17th century, and its relationship with Vietnam.
- Nine works included in this exhibition were produced from lots acquired from
Sotheby’s auction of the Estate of Robert S. McNamara, the former American
Secretary of Defense, whom the New York Times eulogized in 2009 as “the failed
architect of the Vietnam War.”
A handwritten work produced in situ by the artist's father is also part of the exhibition.
Danh Vo's work has been shown in major international venues: Art Institute of
Chicago (2012-2013); Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria (2012); National Gallery of
Denmark, Copenhagen (2012, 2010); Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland (2009); MoMA,
New York (2009); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2008); Bergen Kunsthall, Norway
(2006). He also took part in the Shanghai Biennial in 2012.
Winner of the 2012 Hugo Boss Prize, Danh Vo is exhibited at the Guggenheim
Museum in New York from 15 March until 27 May 2013. He will also be showing
at the 2013 Venice Biennale.
Danh Vo has taken the sentence from an article by an American journalist who,
during her travels in Vietnam, was greeted with the words "Go Mo Ni Ma Da", a mix
of English and French meaning "Good morning, Madame."
Image: We The People (detail) 2011-2013, 2012. Cuivre / Copper © Danh Vo. Courtesy Galerie Chantal Crousel
Press contact:
Maud Ohana Tél. 01 53674051 E-mail maud.ohana@paris.fr
Press officer: Marine Le Bris Tél. 01 53674050 E-mail marine.lebris@paris.fr
Press preview: Thursday 23 May, 11 am-2 pm
Opening: Thursday 23 May, 6-9 pm
Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris
11 avenue du Président Wilson 75116 Paris
Open Tuesday-Sunday 10 am - 6 pm
Late closing Thursday, 10 pm
Admission:
Full price: €6
Reduced price : €4.50 (over 60, teachers, the unemployed, large families)
Half price: €3 (young people 14-26 + people on the minimum wage)
Free for the under 14s