Painter Trần Trọng Vũ has taken a step away from the canvas in order to create installations, his latest project an exploration of the relationship between visual art and the written word. The first piece of this project was exhibited at Manzi, where the artist turned the upstairs floor into an eerie blue dream of floating words.
Vũ is a native Hanoian, the youngest son of revolutionary poet Trần Dần. Born here in 1964, the artist emigrated to France over 20 years ago. He talked to & Of Other Things about using words as an inspiration and an art form, of the loneliness of being an artist and the possibilities for surprise in collaboration.
● Interview by Nguyễn Hương Ly ● Edited by Rose Arnold ● Photographs by Teresa Wealleans
&: How did this new project start and where did you find your inspiration?
When you sit alone, all of your thoughts crystallise, so that in a way you and only you face everything that you have and are.
Trần Trọng Vũ: This project started with a test, perhaps you could call it an experiment on myself. For the first piece of the project, I had no images in my head at all. I shut the door to the world and stayed alone with my own thoughts for 21 days. You know, in such a small space, you work only with your memories and your experiences. I think sitting alone like that, all of your thoughts crystallise, so that in a way you and only you face everything that you have and are.
Normally when you look at a painting or watch film footage, or whatever, what you’re seeing is the finished work of the artist. I wanted to show people how the images in my head were found and how the artwork came to be. If you sit down and read you will understand that I started with nothing, with a blank. You will understand that I found something, an idea, and you will understand why the final visual art looks as it does.
I think using words makes this easier to understand and to take people through the process with you step by step.
&: What are the differences between this project and others that you have done in the past?
Trần Trọng Vũ: Although I live and work in France, the majority of my art has been about Vietnam. About Vietnamese characteristics, about Vietnamese society, about how people’s lives are lived. Memories of Vietnam, of Hanoi, and of the past have always been with me during my 21 years living abroad.
But every year I come back to Vietnam and each time I’m confronted with a totally different city, a Hanoi that no longer relates to the one in my memories. That makes me feel foolish for holding on to those memories, and that there are no reasons or meaning in continuing to do so, no more value in keeping them for myself.
The idea of this new project came to me when I started feeling like the past does not weigh on me so much, feeling that I can part with Vietnam. I suddenly had a desire to focus on myself and my abilities.
&: Why did you decide to put words into visual art?
Trần Trọng Vũ: In reality, I started out interested in literature before finding myself drawn to painting. At 13, I had already written some things but chose at that time to paint instead. I believe that painting and literature are two very distinct types of art, different ways of expression that are worlds apart. That’s why, for me, when I paint I have to forget all about words and literature, and vice versa.
When I painted it was about social issues, the serfdom of people, their living conditions and also my personal relationships with history ̶ with the past and with things that were happening to people. To be more precise with my words: I paint to show my personal attitude toward and conception of political and cultural events.
Of course the need to work with language comes back to me sometimes. I still write opinion pieces and put words into my paintings. However, before this project words appeared in my work only as a very tiny additional note, small signs that balanced the visual aspects of the art.
This time, the words can stand alone and be a complete work of art in themselves. Not just single words, not just a sentence like before… they can be a novel, a story. By making the words visual I begin to work in a different way. The visual isn’t there to illustrate the words exactly; in a way it is a conversation with the words, the two can bring you to different conclusions.
&: How do you feel as a Vietnamese person living and working in France, and what does it mean to you to work independently?
I think people who draw and people who write are extremely lonely, and not only lonely but also selfish.
Trần Trọng Vũ: Actually, even before I left for France, I had always felt like an outsider wherever I was. In Vietnam I did not feel like I completely belonged . And it was the same when I moved to France; I felt like I belonged somewhere else. That’s part of who I am, so geographical change doesn’t mean anything anymore.
To describe the work of an artist, I like to use the word ‘lonely’. I think people who draw and people who write are extremely lonely, and not only lonely but also selfish. It means they don’t share themselves with anyone. It’s completely different from the work of people who make movies, for example. Loneliness doesn’t mean that a person sits alone, but it means he cannot share his thoughts and personal perceptions with anyone.
&: Yet in this project, some of your works are created with other artists. What is it like to work with a big group?
Trần Trọng Vũ: Working in a group of artists means that I am no longer the only author. I play only one role. It’s different from when I work alone, because others bring an element of randomness.
Actually, I think it would be great if we could make more room to allow moments of randomness and surprise to play a part. Like children, when they draw and write. They don’t know everything about the world, nor how to do everything, but they still do it anyway. That’s why when we look at children’s drawings and writings, we can see so many unexpected things.
Working alone, whenever I drew, I also searched for those unexpected moments. Like when I work on a project, I want to find different ways of approaching it, to look at it from different perspectives. However, when you work alone, creating those surprises is difficult because you are the entire initiative. Working in a group, surprises come unexpectedly, I don’t have to try and find them. The surprises find me.
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The interview was carried out in Vietnamese and translated into English. It has been edited and condensed.
