REINCARNATIONS of SHADOWS
2025
Video (color, sound)
Three-channel version: 16:50 min
Five-channel version: 16:19 min
Produced by Pirelli HangarBiccoca, Milan, Foundation In Between Art Film, Rome and Palais de Tokyo, Paris
Reincarnation is omnipresent in Thao Nguyen Phan's practice, as are social and environmental changes. The work Reincarnations of Shadows carries these influences within it, while also making reference to Jun'ichirō Tanizaki's In Praise of Shadows. In this essay, published in 1933, the Japanese author defends an aesthetic of penumbra. The artist for her part places at the heart of her video installation the works and archives of Diem Phung Thi (1920-2002), in a gesture of homage and transmission. Thao Nguyen Phan brings together history, imperial and modernist architecture, as well as Vietnam's colonial past. She develops a dreamlike visual ecosystem, unfolding to the sound of the đàn tranh, a traditional Vietnamese string instrument.
- written by Daria de Beauvais
Exhibition view
Reincarnations of Shadows
in Thao Nguyen Phan, "The Sun Falls Silently", Palais de Tokyo (Paris), 12.06-07.09.2025
Photo credit: Aurélien Mole
Exhibition view
Reincarnations of Shadows
in Thao Nguyen Phan, "The Sun Falls Silently", Palais de Tokyo (Paris), 12.06-07.09.2025
Photo credit: Aurélien Mole
The video is inspired by the historical figure of Diem Phung Thi (1920-2022), a Vietnamese female sculptor whose presence materializes through fragments of interviews and is also evoked in the flow of subtitles citing texts that Thao Nguyen Phan drew from Diem Phung Thi personal archive. Through a delicate and sincere narrative, the work connects the private and public dimensions of the modernist artist’s life, letting her silent but deep desire for resistance and freedom emerge. The two screens, arranged vertically one next to the other, are a direct reference to the classical portrait tradition in art history, while the images are rhythmically accompanied by the sound of the dan tranh, a traditional Vietnamese string instrument.
Phan explained, «I would like to further develop the relationship between moving images and drawings, how the act of drawing can coexist in the video medium as an ecosystem, and to continue to explore the poetic relations within pioneering female artists in post-colonial geographies—a hidden part of art history that shapes how we are and what we will become. »
- written by Lucia Aspesi and Fiammetta Griccioli
Exhibition view
Reincarnations of Shadows
Curated by Lucia Aspesi and Fiammetta Griccioli
Exhibition organized by Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milano in collaboration with Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen
Photo: Agostino Osio
Warmest thanks to:
Lê Thuận Uyên, Ace Lê, Mathilde Tran, Coca Huynh, Roger Nelson , Zoe Butt, Linh Lê and Phan Đình Hối
The plants, the air, the animals, and the spirits of Huế, Sài Gòn, Paris