Poster designed by Theetat Thunkijjanukij
Deeply immersed in materiality and spirituality, Trương Công Tùng’s solo exhibition, titled “The disoriented garden… A breath of dream,” at the Jim Thompson Art Center, Bangkok, offers a poetic yet haunting perspective on various complicated issues in the Central Highlands, Vietnam. From an installation made of natural and artificial elements that he foraged to a video artwork that interlaces the visuals and sounds from his hometown in Gia Lai Province, Trương employed a diverse spectrum of media to gesture toward unspoken stories of ecological disruption and social politics. Stepping into Trương’s exhibition is also akin to taking a leisure stroll through a mythical secret garden, one that is immersed in a trancelike ambience in which the audience can temporarily unfocus their consciousness and allow their senses to take over. Watch the ghost lights play chase across the screen, listen to the faint reverberations of water, breathe in the smell of soil and seeds: the garden awaits those who wish to see differently.
“The disoriented garden… A breath of dream” will open on June 13th, 2024 and run until August 18th, 2024 in Gallery 1-2 of Jim Thompson Art Center. The exhibition is a joint endeavor supported by both the James H.W. Thompson Foundation and the Han Nefkens Foundation’s Southeast Asian Video Art Production Grant, to which Trương is the 2023 recipient. The artist Trương Công Tùng and curator Dương Mạnh Hùng would like to extend their most sincere gratitude to the board members of the J.H.W. Thompson Foundation, Dr. Gridthya Gaweewong the director and staffs from the Jim Thompson Art Center, Supernormal Studio.
Photo: Marisa Srijunpleang, Courtesy of the Jim Thompson Art Center, the James H.W. Thompson Foundation
EXHIBITION BOOKLET:
The booklet accompanies the exhibition and provides the curatorial essay written by curator Dương Mạnh Hùng, images and captions of the artworks, and information about every individual who has contributed their time, resources, and talents to bring this publication to prints. This publication can be purchased on-site at Jim Thompson Art Center.
PUBLIC PROGRAM: (To be Updated)
1) A breath of dream: Be(ing) & (Be)longing through moving images
In his short speech during the opening of The disoriented garden… A breath of dream at the Jim Thompson Art Center, artist Trương Công Tùng said, ‘This moment, here, where we all gather, sharing a breath is very unique to me. I am here thanks to a single breath, of me, of you, of my ancestors, of all beings who exist alongside and within us.’ The Latin root anima, which translates into soul or psyche, initially signifies a breath, the first and last sign of life. Through our individual and collective breathing, we participate in the process of becoming: each breath reminds us of our shared mortality, our metamorphosis, and our desire for a primordial interconnectedness. Drawing from the title of Tùng’s first solo exhibition in Thailand, this screening program attempts to unpack the previously mentioned notions through the ethereal medium of moving image. From the watery breathlessness that besets both a fleeing mother and a struggling dancer, the silent breathing of ghosts and creatures that gestures toward their presence and absence, and a farmer’s dream of rice spirits during his battle against cancer, these filmic works weave a dreamscape that contemplates our current state of being, invokes our longing for unnamable things, and questions our sense of belonging to other humans and nonhumans.
List of artists/works screened:
SOME MORE RICE (2005) – Kidlat Tahimik (20’ 00’’)
WHERE IS MY LAND? (2014) – Khvay Samnang (13’ 29’’)
INTO THE VIOLET BELLY (2022) – Thuy-Han Nguyen-Chi (20’ 00’’)
CAMERA TRAP (2019) – Chris Chong (10’ 00’’)
JALAN-JALAN (2019) – Mark Salvatus (10’ 15’’)
2) SENSING THE INSENSIBLE : Towards an Aesthetics of the Anthropocene (Program only in Thai)
การบรรยายพิเศษโดย ผศ.ดร.เกษม เพ็ญภินันท์
วันพุธ ที่ 31 กรกฎาคม 2567
เวลา 18:30 – 20:00 น. (เริ่มลงทะเบียนตั้งแต่ 18:00 น. )
ณ Cockcatoo Shop ชั้น 1 หอศิลป์บ้านจิมทอมป์สัน
รู้สึกต่อสิ่งที่ไร้ความรู้สึก ว่าด้วยสุนทรียศาสตร์ของยุคมนุษยสมัย (Antropocene) หรือยุคสมัยที่การสูญเสียธรรมชาติ ความเปลี่ยนแปลงทางสภาพอากศ ระบบนิเวศ และสภาพธรณีวิทยาอย่างรวดเร็วเป็นผลกระทบมาจากกิจกรรมของมนุษย์ การบรรยายพิเศษ โดย ผศ.ดร.เกษม เพ็ญภินันท์ เสนอมุมองสุนทรียศาสตร์แบบใหม่ในการบ่มเพาะผัสสะของการเป็นมนุษย์ผ่านงานศิลปะ เพื่อทำความเข้าใจสภาวะความเป็นไปในปัจจุบันสมัย อนาคตอันใกล้ที่จะมาถึง สู่การรับรู้ถึงวัฒนธรรม ธรรมชาติ วิญญาณ และจินตนาการที่ดำรงอยู่ร่วมกันบนพื้นที่สูงตอนกลาง (central highland) ประเทศเวียดนาม ในนิทรรศการ “The disoriented garden… A breath of dream” ของศิลปินเจืองกงตุง, คิวเรทโดยเยืองห์หมานฮุง
PRESS: (To be Updated)
Truong Cong Tung’s “The Disoriented Garden… A Breath of Dream,” by Max Crosbie-Jones, e-flux criticism.