Bill Nguyen on the Fifth Anniversary of The Factory Ian Tee
Bill Nguyen is an artist-curator committed to developing alternative, locally-driven methodologies and platforms for curation in Vietnam. After graduating from Nottingham Trent University in the United Kingdom in 2009, he returned home and engaged with the arts community in different capacities as an artist, educator, writer and curator. From 2009 to 2013, Bill co-led education programmes at Hanoi DOCLAB. He also co-founded the non-profit art space Manzi (Hanoi), and has been collaborating with Nha San Collective as a freelance curator since 2013. In 2017, Bill joined The Factory Contemporary Arts Centre (Ho Chi Minh City) as Assistant Curator. On the occasion of The Factory’s fifth anniversary, Bill reflects on the institution’s achievements and evolving role, and shares his views on the developing art scenes across different cities in Vietnam.
I would like to start the interview by discussing ‘Home: Looking Inwards to the Outer World’, an initiative which began in March 2020 at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. What are the aims behind this project? Did The Factory have to rethink its role in the past year? ‘Home: Looking Inwards to the Outer World’ started when the first social distancing regulations were put in place in Vietnam, turning everyone into homebound bodies. At The Factory, we were determined to continue supporting artistic production. We understood that, as cultural workers, we must go on maintaining our work with what we are gifted: the ability to create. During times of uncertainty and anxiety like this, it is the language of humanity, of literature, poetry, music and the visual arts that is most powerful. It calms us down, lifts us up, and drives us forward.
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