“I never thought I would become an artist, nor do I know when…”
Name
Minh Dung Vu
Profession
Painting and Installations
Website
Where are you from?
Vietnam
Your style in 3 words?
Easy, simple, nostalgia
Your weakness? Your strength?
Negative thoughts, positive thoughts.
What makes you different?
I feel different when I talk with my friends of the same generation about the topic of history, ancient stories, folk beliefs, and the traditional culture of Vietnam.
When did you decide to become an artist?
When I was young, I never thought I would become an artist, nor do I know when. At the age of 10 I learned to paint from my grandfather out of interest and curiosity, then I studied graphic design, and then it all happened by chance.
Do you choose your art form, or does the form choose you?
I think there is no mutual choice here, but a mutual interaction, dialogue, and negotiation.
What do you find most fascinating about the creative process?
The process of work always brings me exciting waiting and various surprises that stimulate curiosity. Sometimes it gives me the opportunity to follow the work longer.
A few words about your favorite creation?
When I go to the studio, out of habit I make myself a cup of green tea, turn on some traditional Vietnamese music, light a roll of incense, then sit down and look at the pile of clothes of all kinds on the floor and wonder what I am going to do with them today?
What surprised you most about your first art shows?
Someone asked me by e-mail about the price of a work
Someone else’s work that inspired or inspires you…
Franz Erhard Walther, Lee Ufan, On Kawara
Who would you like to work with someday and why?
If possible, it would be Lee Ufan or On Kawara. I admire their thinking and vision and the way they work
A new project coming up or an idea you want to work on?
I’m getting closer to the content of each material, how it’s made, and can see its strengths more clearly. I think it’s my job to ‘seduce’ the material to speak its own language because each material has different artistic possibilities and stories. I’m thinking about going back to Vietnam for a few months, maybe to the countryside to work, to have more access to traditional materials, and experience life in places I’ve never been. come, even though I’m Vietnamese. How can you create a dialogue between the traditional and the modern? Because when I came to Germany, it wasn’t only a geographical shift, but also a cultural and emotional shift. And a return would probably be seen as a reverse shift.
Finish the sentence „More important than my career is…“
Family and my personal relationships
2023: Where are we going?
There is a theme that I hear a lot these days, we are looking for an answer to who we are.
Do you think about time as an artist?
No
When the going gets tough…
A cup of hot tea and meditation or religious music.
Put on your future vision glasses: What direction is our generation moving in, what will our world look like in 50 years?
Perhaps change and volatility are inevitable because we ourselves change and transform every day, every hour, every minute, and even every second because that is the law of circulation. Maybe every generation has its own story, in our generation, it seems that things are moving a little faster and quicker than they used to, and everyone is trying to find reasons why. But it can also be an exercise to look at and adjust to the upheavals and changes in the next 50 years and in the future, and all generations are always connected. After 50 years, things may remain the same on the inside, although they change on the outside.
What would you do if you could change the World?
No one has to die of hunger and war anymore, more nature…
What does freedom mean when it comes to art?
Feel comfortable and quiet when working.
If the universe is everything and it’s expanding, what is it expanding into?
a flower
Tell us about your future plans…
keep breathing
Your city’s favorite spots?
Hue in Vietnam and Chun Cheon in Korea
A book that everyone should read…
‘’Last Night I Dreamed about Peace’’ Dang Thuy Tram
Last but not least: what is your favorite Song?
Air on G String – JS Bach
One last statement please: „Wood or stone, gold or art?“
Wood
