Minh Nguyen

My book MEMORIAL PARK is almost here and available for pre-order 📕 This essay collection spans the years I’ve returned to Vietnam as an adult, two decades after my family fled the country. The pieces reflect on the communist revolution’s complex legacy and how it persists in strange, fraught, moving ways — in Vietnam today, across the world, in my own life. I wrote the book to work through my own questions, but I hope it’s a worthwhile read for anyone thinking about what to do with radical histories that are being claimed for multiple ends at once Published by @wendyssubway and @artmetropole . Officially out Sept 23. Pre-order link in my bio Thank you to the best team: editor Leon Dische Becker @leonjdb who thought with me through every idea and line; designer Bryce Wilner; copyeditor Andreas Petrossiants @sanclementebeachbum ; publishers Rachel Valinsky @langue_pendue and Blair Swann @blairswann , Dallas @dallasknives , Tess, Ren, and everyone at Wendy’s and Art Met; friends and peers who may appear in the texts or acknowledgements Photo is of my grandmother and me at the site of the tunnels during the Tet Offensive against the US, now a memorial park. Questions in the book include, why do the wax figures at red tourism sites, no matter where in the world, always look like that? Events TBA, but soft launch at NYC Printed Matter Art Book Fair (MoMA PS1) next Sat Sept 13th at 3pm. Join me for a conversation with Matthew Shen Goodman, moderated by Teline Tran @cherrywire , on the book and the relationship between Asian revolutionaries and Asian American conservatives

from the misty Mộc Châu and Mai Châu mountains in the North. i was astonished by the edible mustard greens growing everywhere on the grounds

i was running late in the cab and the driver said don’t worry, the Vietnamese run on giờ dây thun, or “rubber band time.” this year was also a rubber band year — the longest i can remember, i think because i learned so much, which makes time feel outstretched some highlights include meeting MASAO ADACHI who came to my Tokyo talk at @sawasawahouse ; discussing the unfinished revolution through agitprop aesthetics of the world at @maydayrooms ; entering the treasure vault of VFI, the national film archive; making exhibitions I never thought possible at @dogmacollection , like screening a film loaned from the French Communist Party’s archives; seeing things I’d only read about, like the star-shaped Ivry-sur-Seine “red suburb” commune, and also where the Paris Commune took place, on the best walking tour with @olivierhadouchi ; visiting friends in their cities to match and go to the library; writing a book as a way to think in public, with dream launch respondents @mshengoodman , @jasminprix , @mtsengpu , Catherine, Kaleem, @tausifnoor , @tianareid , @linnhlee , @hmvkmv ; and of course, big love and big friendship, more than I can fit here. 🎼🕯️happy new year.

🥂Please join us to celebrate the launch of Minh Nguyen’s Memorial Park, an essay collection that pairs travelogue and art criticism on contemporary Vietnam. Minh will be joined by curator and writer Linh Le for a conversation on writing, art criticism, and local literary cultures. Reception to follow, with books available! Mời bạn đến chung vui cùng buổi tiệc giới thiệu sách Memorial Park (Tạm dịch: “Công viên Tưởng niệm”) của Minh Nguyễn, tuyển tập tiểu luận kết hợp du ký và phê bình nghệ thuật về Việt Nam đương đại. Minh sẽ đối thoại với Giám tuyển/Cây viết Linh Lê về sáng tác, phê bình nghệ thuật, và văn học địa phương. Chiêu đãi sau chương trình. Mua sách tại sự kiện! Thông tin chương trình | Event details • Thời gian | Time: 19:30, 28/11/2024 • Địa điểm | Venue: Thảo Điền Vui lòng đăng ký để nhận địa chỉ / Please register for address: https://forms.gle/Fgawcv52h8vChQ4p9 • Program is free / Chương trình miễn phí • Ngôn ngữ | Language: tiếng Anh và tiếng Việt / English and Vietnamese • Thiết kế | Design by Lưu Chữ @luuchuvietnam 🌬️📖❤️ Memorial Park (2025) is published by @wendyssubway and @artmetropole . Minh and Linh bios in comment

Join us at e-flux this Thursday for a reading and conversation with Minh Nguyen on the occasion of her new book, 𝘔𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘬: 𝘙𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘝𝘪𝘦𝘵𝘯𝘢𝘮, released by Art Metropole and Wendy’s Subway. Nguyen will read and present from the chapter of the book on art and censorship, followed by remarks and a conversation with Catherine Quan Damman, Kaleem Hawa, Yasmina Price, and Mark Tseng-Putterman. 𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 Fifty years after the Fall of Saigon and twenty years after her family’s emigration to America, Minh Nguyen returns to her native Vietnam to find out what’s left of the old revolutionary project. In 𝘔𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘬, a collection of essays pairing travelogue and criticism, Nguyen encounters relics of proletarian romance and vestiges of authoritarian control amid an evermore corporatized society. Along the way, she considers how contemporary artspeak confuses state censors, the rise of luxury “Smart Cities” as they supplant socialist housing complexes, and the enduring appeal of propaganda signs that once promised utopia. Driven by a diasporic curiosity that seeks discovery over dwelling on loss, 𝘔𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘬 avoids nostalgic idealism or reflexive condemnation. Instead, Nguyen takes seriously the legacy of Vietnamese liberation by naming what it has become—and what it has not. What emerges is a complex picture of the country today and a reflection on how we inherit and reckon with radical histories that shape our world. About the speakers in the comments. * @minhsometimes @e_flux @artmetropole

We realized the Arabic for Introduction to the End of an Argument was flipped and should read مقدمة لنهاية جدل. We apologize for the error Một series chiếu phim mới kết hợp giữa @dogma.collection và Ném, thuộc khuôn khổ triển lãm A RADIAL SYSTEM - Ký Ức Lan Toả, tổ chức bởi DOGMA (28.02 - 12.06) khám phá mối quan hệ giữa xung đột chính trị và nhiếp ảnh Vào mỗi thứ 3 và thứ 6, hai lần mỗi tháng, Rạp Nhà với DOGMA sẽ được dựng lên để cùng xem và nghĩ về Việt Nam, lưu trữ, hình ảnh, phương tiện truyền thông, tuyề và hơn thế... Tháng 3 này, 2 bộ phim được nhà giám tuyển Minh Nguyễn @minhsometimes chọn bao gồm: 1. La Dame de Saigon (The Lady of Saigon) bởi Jocelyne Saab, 1996 Thời gian: 7.30pm - 9.30pm ngày 14.03.2025 Buổi chiếu phim sẽ có sự xuất hiện của nhà giám tuyển chương trình Minh Nguyễn và tiến sĩ Hoàng Minh Vũ Đã đầy 2. The People’s War bởi Robert Kramer, Norman Fruchter, John Douglas (Newsreel Collective), 1970 Point de départ (Starting Place) bởi Robert Kramer, 1994 Thời gian: 7.00pm - 10.00pm ngày 18.03.2025 Ngôn ngữ: tiếng anh, việt và pháp Phụ đề: tiếng anh Link đăng kí trên bio Tại Ném 18/1 Ngô Thời Nhiệm, phường Võ Thị Sáu, quận 3 Giữ xe: Tầng hầm 16 Ngô Thời Nhiệm (Thiên Sơn apartment) __ A new screening series hosted by DOGMA and Ném, lies within the framework of the exhibition 'A RADIAL SYSTEM' by DOGMA (28.02 - 12.06) that explores the interplay between political conflict and photography. Twice a month, RẠP NHÀ with DOGMA is on screen to watch and think about documentary, radical cinema, media and propaganda, and more... In this March, 2 films curated by curator Minh Nguyen: 1. La Dame de Saigon (The Lady of Saigon) by Jocelyne Saab, 1996 Time: 7.30pm - 9.30pm, 14.03.2025 With discussion by program curator Minh Nguyen and Doctor Hoang Minh Vu We’re full! 2.The People’s War by Robert Kramer, Norman Fruchter, John Douglas (Newsreel Collective), 1970 Point de départ (Starting Place) bởi Robert Kramer, 1994 Time: 7.00pm - 10.00pm, 18.03.2025 French, English and Vietnamese spoken, English subtitles RSVP link in bio Ném 18/1 Ngô Thời Nhiệm, Võ Thị Sáu Ward, District 3 Parking: Basement of 16 Ngô Thời Nhiệm (Thiên Sơn Apartment)

in the latest @e_flux journal, I have a text on some recent Vietnamese and diaspora art that references and interprets communist iconography and culture. Reading these works together, I ask who may be the targets of and audience for their critiques, and what they reveal about the unresolved positions on Vietnam’s communist legacy (and that of the Cold War more broadly) i’ve been working on this piece for a while and it’s benefitted from many conversations, but thanks specifically to @sanclementebeachbum @sssitdownnn and the e-flux journal team, @leonjdb for the supportive edits, feedback from @hmvkmv , @vandoboke and the audience at @a.experimental.art where i presented an earlier draft. And of course thank you to the artists for making these works image: Diane Severin Nguyen, IF REVOLUTION IS A SICKNESS, 2021, video, still.

In the first of a new series Storming Heaven will be joined by Minh Nguyen and Marco Spagnoletti to look at the shared aesthetic and political influences of the revolutionary cinemas of Palestine, Vietnam, Cuba, and Italy. Over the last nine months film has been an essential pedagogical and political tool of resistance, with screenings providing opportunities for collective mourning and organising. In this new series guest programmers will reflect on how these present and historical transnational solidarities might shape those of the future. In December 1967, a Cuban film crew led by filmmaker Santiago Álvarez traveled to Hanoi to record one day of footage that would become the anti-imperialist agitprop film Hanoi Martes 13. A document of North Vietnamese culture and resistance, the film was not only an anathema to US media on Vietnam at the time, but also an instance of solidarity as an act of witness.  Álvarez was a great admirer of the Palestinian filmmaker Mustafa Abu Ali. This screening considers the two filmmakers’ camaraderie — and the internationalist web that it represented — by pairing Alvarez’s masterpiece with Abu Ali’s Palestine in the Eye, a film that mirrored the global scope of revolutionary cinema as it aimed to encompass the Palestinian resistance within a larger struggle against racism, capitalism, and imperialism.  @minhsometimes is a writer and organiser of exhibitions and programs. Her writing has appeared in publications including Art in America, Momus, and Mousse, and she is working on a forthcoming book with Art Metropole. @marcospagnol teaches on the “History and Institutions of the Modern Middle East” course in the University of Bologna. His work concerns transnational solidarity between the Palestinian Marxist and the Italian revolutionary left, collaborating with the Institut Français du Proche-Orient in Beirut. Storming Heaven is a programme assembled around filmmaking as a practice of solidarity and radical community building, curated by @gerardortin and @roisin_agnew_

a stunning full moon weekend

it’s my birthday 🕯 as my friend imani says, “it’s been a slow fast beautiful terrible year.” as dashboard confessional says, 🎶 “hope dangles on a string.”

oranges

so much has been written about the controversial Documenta 15 that as i was writing my @artinamerica review, kept wondering what i could possibly add… but here is my effort to think through the robust, vitalizing, strained exhibition with many lessons, one of which is: you can learn as much about something by its enemies as by its supporters link in bio. thanks to @keys_wallet_phone for editing @equatorialism @leonjdb for soundboarding (and for teaching me the word “deutungshoheit,” german for power to control interpretation, which i wish i got into the piece)