Exhibition of work on Vietnam War opens at Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art
Apr. 4, 2016
by Hiromi Morita, Staff Writer
On March 19, an exhibition titled “Din Q. Lê: Memory for Tomorrow” opened at the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art. The exhibition, which is co-organized by the museum and the Chugoku Shimbun, traces the works of Din Q. Lê, a Vietnamese artist of international acclaim. The exhibition will run until May 15.
Seventeen works by Mr. Lê, featuring the Vietnam War as their main theme, are on display at the exhibition. The works convey the memories of private individuals, which tend to be concealed by the publicly-known history, through various methods, including the use of objects and images.
Mr. Lê was born in 1968 in a Vietnamese town near the border with Cambodia. At the age of 10, he fled the invasion by the Pol Pot forces and moved to the United States with his family. While a student at the University of California, he created a work of art in the form of a poster which compared the number of victims in the Vietnam War on both the Vietnamese side and the American side. He was motivated by discomfort over the fact that stories about the war were being told only from the point of view of Americans.
His early works, including this poster, and more recent work which involved conducting interviews in Japan, are on display. While posing probing questions on nationalism and war, the works also engage visitors with their wit, humor, and sense of irony. The museum is closed on Mondays.
(Originally published on March 20, 2016)
On March 19, an exhibition titled “Din Q. Lê: Memory for Tomorrow” opened at the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art. The exhibition, which is co-organized by the museum and the Chugoku Shimbun, traces the works of Din Q. Lê, a Vietnamese artist of international acclaim. The exhibition will run until May 15.
Seventeen works by Mr. Lê, featuring the Vietnam War as their main theme, are on display at the exhibition. The works convey the memories of private individuals, which tend to be concealed by the publicly-known history, through various methods, including the use of objects and images.
Mr. Lê was born in 1968 in a Vietnamese town near the border with Cambodia. At the age of 10, he fled the invasion by the Pol Pot forces and moved to the United States with his family. While a student at the University of California, he created a work of art in the form of a poster which compared the number of victims in the Vietnam War on both the Vietnamese side and the American side. He was motivated by discomfort over the fact that stories about the war were being told only from the point of view of Americans.
His early works, including this poster, and more recent work which involved conducting interviews in Japan, are on display. While posing probing questions on nationalism and war, the works also engage visitors with their wit, humor, and sense of irony. The museum is closed on Mondays.
(Originally published on March 20, 2016)
