The Vietnamese artist and filmmaker Tuan Andrew Nguyen (Ho Chi Minh City, former Saigon, 1976) has been awarded this Wednesday with the eighth Joan Miró Award for “the captivating beauty, poetry and sensuality” of some film, sculptural and performative projects “that address difficult issues related to history, collective memory and the impact of colonialism.” The award, which this year is convened by the Fundació Miró for the first time in collaboration with the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), is endowed with 50,000 euros and includes the production of a monographic exhibition of the artist that will be presented throughout the next year.
The biannual Joan Miró Award honors artists from around the world whose work shares the spirit of research, innovation, commitment and freedom that characterized the life and work of Miró. In this sense, the jury has underlined the “extraordinary depth and imagination” of Tuan Andrew Nguyen, as well as the authenticity of an artist who “has lived the experience of migration first-hand” and “has the rare ability to appeal both to reason as feelings”. Composed of Hoor Al Qasimi, Katerina Gregos, Haeju Kim, Ann-Sofi Noring and Marko Daniel, the panel also highlighted “the social, political and environmental relevance of his work, which is always presented with a surprisingly unique artistic vision. Its subtlety allows one to address some of the most difficult episodes in modern history with a playful and poetic clarity.”
Born in Ho Chi Minh City, Tuan Andrew Nguyen immigrated with his family to the United States as a child and returned to Vietnam, where he currently works, after graduating with a BFA from the University of California. “My parents and I are part of the Boat People, the wave of refugees who fled Vietnam by sea after the war, and it’s an emotional turmoil that still affects me today,” says Tuan Andrew Nguyen. , who has made the recovery of collective memory and the commitment to communities that have faced traumas caused by colonialism, war and emigration the pillars on which his work is built.
“Listening is an act of solidarity, a first step towards empathy,” says the artist, whose work is always part of a collaborative process with communities from different parts of the world. The Fundació Miró exhibition will trace a journey through different works from his career and could include some of his own productions made in Barcelona. It will be the first time that his work can be seen in Spain, despite being a regular presence in museums and biennials such as the one in Berlin or the Whitney in New York.
Tuan Andrew Nguyen joins the list of award-winning artists with the Joan Miró, which in previous editions appeared in Olafur Eliasson (2007), Pipilotti Rist (2009), Mona Hatoum (2011), Roni Horn (2013), Ignasi Aballà (2015). ), Kader Attia (2017) and Nalini Malani (2019).