Thảo Nguyên Phan: ‘Becoming Alluvium’
Thảo Nguyên Phan, Becoming Alluvium, 2019. One-channel video, 4K, sound, colour, loop, dimensions variable, 6 min 50 sec. Courtesy of the artist
About the Work
Becoming Alluvium is a single-channel colour film that continues Thảo Nguyên Phan’s research into the Mekong River and the cultures that it nurtures. Through allegory, it explores the environmental and social changes caused by the expansion of agriculture, overfishing and the economic migration of farmers to urban areas. ‘The Mekong can be summarized in terms of materiality – the river of wet-rice civilization, and in terms of spirituality – the river of Buddhism,’ explains Phan. ‘However, unlike the compassion and mindfulness that are taught by Buddha […] in recent decades, human intervention on the river body has been so violent that it has forever transformed the nature of its flow and the fate of its inhabitants.’ Phan’s film is divided into three main chapters. The recounts the collapse of a dam that caused the death of many villagers downstream, including two teenager brothers. The second documents people navigating the Mekong in their daily lives. The final chapter retells a Khmer folktale via Phan’s animated illustrations of headless characters, inspired by a decapitated Khmer statues that she encountered in the Musée Guimet in Paris. Text by Zoë Gray
About the artist
Thảo Nguyên Phan (b.1987, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam) lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City. Recent solo exhibitions include ‘Reincarnation of Shadows’, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark (2024); ‘Ode to the Margins’, Galerie Zink Waldkirchen, Germany (2023); ‘Reincarnation of Shadows’ Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milano, Italy (2023); Tate St Ives, Cornwall, UK (2022); Chisenhale Gallery, London, UK (2020); Han Nefkens Art Foundation and WIELS, Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels, Belgium (2019); Loop Barcelona video art award, Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain.
About EMAP x FRIEZE FILM SEOUL
For the third year in a row, Frieze Film returns to Frieze Seoul 2024. This year’s programme is presented in partnership with Ewha Media Art Presentation (EMAP) and is on view from 2 – 6 September at Ewha Womans University and online at frieze.com.
Curated by Joowon Park and Valentine Umansky, this year’s programme is titled ‘All that Weaves the Universe: Of Quantum Entanglements’. It brings together time-based media works of 37 international artists, unfolding across eight chapters.
