Tuần Andrew Nguyễn’s practice is about memory and storytelling. The Vietnamese-American artist deconstructs official historiography by giving voice to micro-histories, merging personal memories of those involved with retold stories and blending them with mythologies. Through installations, sculpture, archival materials, moving images, and collaborative practices, his works shed light on and give voice to histories that have vanished, been erased, or overlooked under the weight of colonization and its ongoing legacy. Thus, his distinct method of storytelling has become a powerful strategy for resistance, healing, empowerment, and solidarity.
In the 36th Bienal de São Paulo, the artist presents his two-channel video installation Amongst the Disquiet (2024), created in close collaboration with artist Thảo Nguyễn, as well as Marion Hoàng Ngọc Hill and a dynamic New Orleans Vietnamese community, commissioned for Prospect 6 (2024). The film recounts the story of the bonds within a multi-generational family of Vietnamese background, exploring the intertwining of migration and memory, home and history, land and water. Through interwoven vignettes told through dialogues and songs, the film meanders along the challenges, longings, and complex emotional landscapes of the different family members – the path forward is constantly shaped by the ghosts of the past. Through the perspective of several generations and even the dead, the film explores the questions: What constitutes home when home is left behind? Where is home when loved ones are no longer there? Does home live within us? Or where we bury our dead?
