About
Saturday 1 November: 12pm-4pm, Pukekura Park
Sunday 2 November: 10am-2pm, Ngāmotu Beach
Over the opening weekend of his exhibition Tầm Tã – Soaked in the long rain, we invite you to participate in a durational performance alongside Vietnamese artist Trần Lương.
This performance furthers the artist’s interest in engaging with different communities and contexts through acts of unconditional trust. Over two days, the artist will be present at different locations in Ngāmotu with his head covered, simply waiting for an encounter to happen. Passersby are invited to guide the artist in any direction they wish.
Trần Lương’s first performance to be realised in Aotearoa, the artist offers this open-ended proposition as a means of getting to know a new context intimately through exchange with, trust in and learning from those who live there. He states:
On every meter of my life's journey, although I have seen a lot, how much have I truly understood? Each time I return to a place, at best I manage to “see” just a small hidden corner of life, which seems far too little compared to what I hope for.
I once tried to approach the places differently—rather than only looking and asking. This time, I am voluntarily giving myself to strangers along the way.
Conceived in collaboration with Biljana Ciric.
This performance takes place alongside Trần Lương’s survey exhibition Tầm Tã – Soaked in the long rain, on view at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery (1 November 2025-8 February 2026). Spanning painting, installation, performance, community engagement and institution-making, the exhibition delves into the life of an artist who, over the last thirty years, has played a significant role in supporting critical contemporary art in Vietnam.
Trần Lương (born Hanoi, 1960) is a visual artist and a key figure in the creation of spaces for critical contemporary art in Vietnam. Lương was a founding member of the Gang of Five (1983-1997), and in 1998, co-founded Nhà Sàn Studio, the country’s first experimental art space. He was the founding director of the Hanoi Contemporary Arts Center in 2000, a position he resigned from in 2003 in protest against corruption in the state-run arts agency. In 2020, he co-founded the Center for Arts Patronage and Development, an organisation focused on cultivating opportunities for artistic and social development.
Image: Trần Lương, ERUTUF/HISTORY, 2018, photo documentation of performance, Lublin & Baiystok (Poland), and Berlin.