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Presenting the Prince Claus Award to Dinh Q. Lê
On 8 August 2011 Vietnamese visual artist Dinh Q. Lê will be presented with the Prince Claus Award at the Dutch consulate in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
The Prince Claus Fund honoured Dinh Q. Lê for his strong creative work exploring different constructions of reality, for providing inspiration and practical opportunities for young artists, and for advancing free thought and contemporary visual expression in a context of indifference and hostility.
As an artist Dinh Q. Lê is inspired by the American War (as it is know in Vietnam) and Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. In the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City Lê exhibited a helicopter that symbolised all the American helicopters sent to Vietnam during the war. An artwork that was inspired by the Khmer Rouge emerged after a visit to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Lê used the photographs of Khmer Rouge prisoners for his 1994-99 series Cambodia: Splendor and Darkness.
Besides being an artist, Lê has been active in (co-)founding a number of art organisations. One example is Sàn Art, a non-profit art space for exhibiting work by both international and local artists, that was founded in 2007 by Lê and three other artists. In just three years this art centre has already had an enormous impact on the vitality and accessibility of contemporary art in Ho Chi Minh City.
"Dinh Q. Lê is honoured for his strong creative work"
Jury report Prince Claus Awards 2010
Prince Claus Award 2010
The theme of the 2010 awards was Frontiers of Reality, which is a crucial theme for contemporary culture and development since perceptions of reality vary according to our knowledge and the cultural, political and social environment in which we live. Especially in today’s world of new information technologies many new versions of reality are surfacing and people feel the need to make sense of this new perspectives. In selecting the theme of Frontiers of Reality, the Prince Claus Fund aims to honour those who open up different perceptions and make significant contributions to the construction of new knowledge, better understanding, empowerment and greater equity – essential factors for local and global development and stability.
Prins Claus Awards
view programmeDe Prins Claus Prijzen worden jaarlijks toegekend aan individuen, groepen en organisaties in met name Afrika, Azië, Latijns Amerika en het Caribisch gebied, voor hun uitmuntende prestaties op het gebied van cultuur en ontwikkeling.
Dinh Q. Lê
2010 Prince Claus Laureate Visual artist Dinh Q. Lê (1968, Ha-Tien) is the co-founder of two transformative institutions that are opening up possibilities for Vietnamese artists. The Vietnam Foundation for the Arts is a Los Angeles-based centre that counteracts isolation through exchanges and collaboration. And Sàn Art, the first independent not-for-profit art space in Ho Chi Minh City, runs local and international exhibitions, residencies, projects, a reading room, discussions, lectures and networking opportunities. Brought up in Vietnam during the American war, Dinh Q. Lê moved to the USA aged 10. Surrounded by Hollywood and western media interpretations of his homeland, he studied and began his art practice. He devised an innovative technique based on Vietnamese craft heritage, literally and metaphorically weaving images and fragments into complex combinations of different traditions, histories and modernities. These ‘surreal memory landscapes’ dramatically portray the schizophrenic realities of exiles and migrants. Returning to Vietnam, aged 25, he continues his explorations of contradictory realities. The Farmers and the Helicopter (2006), a documentary video on passionate local desire to recreate the iconic destroyer of Vietnam’s traumatic past, contrasts with South China Sea Pishkun (2009), a 3D animation of the mass crashing of helicopters into the South China Sea during America’s panicked retreat from Saigon – the Vietnamese view still widely unknown. Other works examine genocide, consumerist glitz in disadvantaged places, and the promotion of Vietnam as idyllic paradise for tourists. The Prince Claus Award honours Dinh Q. Lê for his strong creative work exploring different constructions of reality, for providing inspiration and practical opportunities for young artists, and for advancing free thought and contemporary visual expression in a context of indifference and hostility.
Presenting the Prince Claus Award to Dinh Q. Lêtitle
On 8 August 2011 Vietnamese visual artist Dinh Q. Lê will be presented with the Prince Claus Award at the Dutch consulate in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
The Prince Claus Fund honoured Dinh Q. Lê for his strong creative work exploring different constructions of reality, for providing inspiration and practical opportunities for young artists, and for advancing free thought and contemporary visual expression in a context of indifference and hostility.
As an artist Dinh Q. Lê is inspired by the American War (as it is know in Vietnam) and Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. In the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City Lê exhibited a helicopter that symbolised all the American helicopters sent to Vietnam during the war. An artwork that was inspired by the Khmer Rouge emerged after a visit to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Lê used the photographs of Khmer Rouge prisoners for his 1994-99 series Cambodia: Splendor and Darkness.
Besides being an artist, Lê has been active in (co-)founding a number of art organisations. One example is Sàn Art, a non-profit art space for exhibiting work by both international and local artists, that was founded in 2007 by Lê and three other artists. In just three years this art centre has already had an enormous impact on the vitality and accessibility of contemporary art in Ho Chi Minh City.
Presenting the Prince Claus Award to Dinh Q. Lêtitle
On 8 August 2011 Vietnamese visual artist Dinh Q. Lê will be presented with the Prince Claus Award at the Dutch consulate in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
The Prince Claus Fund honoured Dinh Q. Lê for his strong creative work exploring different constructions of reality, for providing inspiration and practical opportunities for young artists, and for advancing free thought and contemporary visual expression in a context of indifference and hostility.
As an artist Dinh Q. Lê is inspired by the American War (as it is know in Vietnam) and Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. In the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City Lê exhibited a helicopter that symbolised all the American helicopters sent to Vietnam during the war. An artwork that was inspired by the Khmer Rouge emerged after a visit to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Lê used the photographs of Khmer Rouge prisoners for his 1994-99 series Cambodia: Splendor and Darkness.
Besides being an artist, Lê has been active in (co-)founding a number of art organisations. One example is Sàn Art, a non-profit art space for exhibiting work by both international and local artists, that was founded in 2007 by Lê and three other artists. In just three years this art centre has already had an enormous impact on the vitality and accessibility of contemporary art in Ho Chi Minh City.
