Viet Nam (Socialist Republic of) 2026

Title: Viet Nam: Art in the Global Flow
Commissioner: Ma The Anh
Curator: Do Tuong Linh
Exhibitors: Nguyen Thanh Chuong, Doan Thi Thu Huong, Bui Huu Hung, Le Hoang Nguyen,Trinh Tuan, Dinh Van Quan, Nguyen Truong Linh, Trieu Khac Tien, Le Nguyen Chinh, Le Huu Hieu

The exhibition marks Vietnam’s first official participation at the Venice Biennale, presenting ten artists whose work is unified by a shared material: traditional Vietnamese lacquer. Derived from the natural resin of the lacquer tree and requiring extensive layering and hand-polishing, the technique is used here not merely as a medium but as a conceptual language – one rooted in patience, craft, and deep connection to natural cycles. The exhibition’s approach is deliberately understated, avoiding spectacle in favour of a slow, contemplative atmosphere structured around repetitive forms, circular rhythms, and the interplay of matter, light, and empty space.

The central figure of the pavilion is Le Huu Hieu, who presents a monumental body of work titled “Silkworm”. Working with jackwood treated with the traditional HOM carbonisation technique, red lacquer, bronze, and aluminium cast using sand and clay moulds, he constructs large-scale installations and sculptures centred on anonymous collective figures – silent heroes of everyday life. A reconstruction of a traditional northern Vietnamese house, over five metres long and four metres high, houses seventeen sculptures including military figures modelled on imperial tomb statuary. The work’s most distinctive element is the live use of thousands of silkworms released onto the sculptures’ surfaces, producing silk threads that weave unpredictable patterns – an ongoing process that frames history as organic and collective rather than monumental.