Don’t Call It Art!

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by Veronika Radulovic
and talk with Do Tuong Linh

Karaoke bars and noisy motorbikes, AIDS and capitalism, Buddhism and homosexuality, the allure of Western brands and a country marked by war – the works of Vietnamese artists Truong Tan, Nguyen Minh Thanh, Nguyen Quang Huy and Nguyen van Cuong are unembellished and introspective, marked by anger and tenderness. Their works represent a society on the brink of change and they mark the beginning of a new art, the beginning of contemporary art in Vietnam. Their unconventional works, their performances and installations – the first ever in Vietnam – have made them the most important protagonists of a free young art scene that emerged in Hanoi in the early 1990s.
Their works have not only found their place in the collections of leading museums such as the Singapore Art Museum and the National Gallery Singapore, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation New York or the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, but recent art historical research in Vietnam itself also honours their names as pioneering artists.
Four extensive monographic chapters form the core of the book.
The archive of German artist Veronika Radulovic makes it possible to make these radical works accessible on this scale for the first time. Don’t Call It Art! tells the initial story of four artists and thus closes a gap in Vietnamese art history of the 20th century.

Don’t Call It Art!
Edited by Annette Bhagwati, Veronika Radulovic
Texts by Eva Bentcheva, Annette Bhagwati, Pamela N. Corey, Veronika Radulovic
Design by Dagmar Dunkelau, Berlin
Kerber Verlag, ISBN 978-3-7356-0791-1

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