Multi-object installation, part of the exhibition GAP Vietnam, House of World Cultures, Berlin, Germany, 1999.

Description

The installation Spring was produced as a site-specific installation for the group exhibition Gặp Việt Nam in the House of the World Cultures, Berlin, Germany.

The installation consisted of three old pianos covered in the Deutsche Mark and pfennig coins, which gradually started to lose value in anticipation of the transition to a pan-European currency. Cutouts from the cardboard boxes that represented hybrid images of Venus, stringed instruments, and angels were placed on the piano. There were also cardboard sculptures in the shape of tree towers standing nearby as a visual symbol of the spring rebirth. The old German currency, which was used as a decorative element, negating its practical purpose, emphasized the commencement of the switch to the euro as a fresh step towards European unification and the regeneration of life.

Text by Iola Lenzi, PhD, Historian of Contemporary Southeast Asian Art. Lenzi has conducted extensive research on the contemporary practice of Vũ Dân Tân, located in the context of contemporary art in 1990s Hanoi.