The year is XXXX

[Art]venture

The year is XXXX

Art Nation
26.11.25

The exhibition “The year is XXXX” took place simultaneously across the campuses of EMASI Nam Long and EMASI Van Phuc from April to November 2025, featuring artists Quynh Dong, Nguyen Phuong Linh, Thao Nguyen Phan, and Danh Vo. Curated by Thai Ha – the exhibition reconsiders colonial-era travelogues about Indochina, originally recorded by Western missionaries and voyagers. Rather than continuing the conventional perspective, this exhibition proposes a reversed spectacle: the lands and local inhabitants become the subjects, casting their eyes back at those who once wrote about them.

Lap Phuong, “Womb (No. 3, Yin Yang series)” (2020), translucent glass, 79 x 32 x 20 cm. Rotating curation by Sofia Thieu D’Amico, 02.08–13.09.2025. Photo: Nguyen Art Foundation.

“The year is XXXX” explores how adventure is used to invent fantastical fictions of foreign lands and as a strategy of escape from colonial subjugation.

Nguyen Phuong Linh, “The last ride” (2017), aluminium pieces, plastic perspex, lights, glass and MDF pedestal, installation dimension variable, “The year is XXXX” exhibition view at EMASI Nam Long. Photo: Nguyen Art Foundation.

What sets this exhibition apart is its continuously evolving nature. Unlike conventional exhibitions curated by a single curator, every six weeks, within an open space at EMASI Van Phuc, guest curators from around the world such as Bill Nguyen, Joud Al-Tamimi, Sofia Thieu D’Amico, and Denise Lai will take turns curating works from Nguyen Art Foundation’s collection, offering new visual interpretations that further expand the protagonist’s adventure. From that, the exhibition invites audiences to explore how places assert their presence through their rhythms, transcending the fictional projections of outsiders.

Editor: Hồng Ánh

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