“Opening a workshop” at Manzi – “Waves hitting the sand and sky” and Phan Quang’s art practices
In August 2020, at Manzi, the public came to “𝑺𝒐́𝒏𝒈 𝒗𝒐̂̃ 𝒄𝒂́𝒕 𝒕𝒓𝒐̛̀𝒊” – Enjoying a series of works from the most recent practice of 𝗣𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗻𝗴 – a visual artist/photographer from Ho Chi Minh City.
Unlike the photographic practices that made Phan Quang famous, “Opening a Workshop” at Manzi this time marks an important shift in his creative journey, in which video installation becomes the center. No longer are the still images carefully staged in the style of “standing-out-of-the-moment”, with compositions containing many layers of ideas and inserting sharp observations, like a cold knife cutting through reality, exposing hidden corners and dissecting rejected trauma or ignored prejudices. This time, in the latest series of works, the artist turns the lens back on himself: Using his own body as a material of expression, a tool to experience, confront and challenge.
In the two video works of “𝑺𝒐́𝒏𝒈 𝒗𝒐̂̃ 𝒄𝒂́𝒕 𝒕𝒓𝒐̛̀𝒊”, the artist and his body appear as a solitary figure in nature: Naked, defenseless, unprotected. He is directly confronted with the immeasurable vastness and the unforgiving primal forces of nature: Waves, wind, sun, the compression of sand and the destruction of water. The movements of the body – whether passively lying still or actively manipulating, including self-destructive acts – are not presented as a dramatic performance, but as a silent “ritual”, without provocation or challenge, simply letting go completely. Take back the statements, remove the metaphors, and what remains is purely physical experience.
Phan Quang pushes his biological body to its ultimate limit, as a way to remove the ego, to reach an inner realm, where physical pain becomes the door to deep meditation. This is not a struggle to prove the will to survive. In absolute solitude, the artist does not seek victory, but lets himself be threatened, buried, submerged; to recreate himself from the extreme experience in another form – Although weaker, more fragile, but an original and truer existence than ever. True in every subtlest vibration: Breathing, heartbeat, emptiness, compression, release, maintained in an inevitable rhythm like the waves hitting the shore and the sand blowing in the wind – persistent and calm…
The works attract the attention of many art lovers.
Phan Quang chose an experimental approach – using himself as a model and tool to explore the fluctuations of emotions when forced to face “terrifying fears”.
That experience was not only documented and re-presented through two films, but also spread, diffused and reflected in the exhibition space – Through photographic works and a portrait installation made from crushed sand and pieces of mirror. There, the disturbance between seeing and being seen, between the portrait of another person and one’s own image, between the feeling of observing and the feeling of being observed, creates a vague intersection: Where the seemingly eternally silent space suddenly lures the viewer with an invitation to engage, confront and collide: Like waves hitting the shore and then rolling away, is it accretion or is it being washed away, is it full or empty? – Those doubts about existence and transformation are the echoes of each person wondering and searching for their own answers. As for Phan Quang, he has realized for himself:“At the bottom of suffering is the seed of happiness.”
Event information:
Factory Opening Party: 6:30 PM Friday, August 1, 2025
Open factory: 11:00 – 19:00 (Tuesday – Sunday) from August 2 to August 24, 2025
Address: Manzi Exhibition Space, 2 Hang Bun Lane, Hanoi
Open to the public
Information from the Organizing Committee