By: Marina Han

The camera nears a monument at the edge of a wooden footbridge. The monument is of a woman and a little girl standing together on top of a low podium, both looking fiercely brave and bold. Behind them are huge statues that look like feathers and they shrink as they move farther away from the podium.

This stunning monument is named the Desire for National Reunification, placed in Quang Tri Province, central Vietnam, after the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1954 to 1975. It ended in around 60,000 American deaths and 2 million Vietnamese deaths. As shown in the name, the monument represents the longing for North and South Vietnam to reunify. The bridge spans the Ben Hai River; for 21 years, it was the dividing line between North and South Vietnam. This area is loaded with unexploded bombshells and anyone who comes here may get blown apart.

This is a clip in “The Unburied Sounds of a Troubled Horizon,” a film by the artist Tuan Andrew Nguyen, which is the centerpiece of “Tuan Andrew Nguyen: A Radiant Resemblance,” set to open at the New Museum of Manhattan in July. Less than a month ago, Nguyen was awarded with the 2023 Juan Miro Prize in Barcelona for his free imagination and radical visual poetics. He creates masterpieces using bombshells and other material to not only let the world experience his art but also to resemble the past during the Vietnam War.

For decades, people were living in misery as the Vietnam War was trudging along. As there were deaths, fights, bombings, crying, and suffering, everyone just wanted it all to end. When it was finally finished, people were relieved. But now, one man is bringing back these memories and morphing them into… art.

This man is Tuan Andrew Nguyen, an artist who creates masterpieces using bombshells and other material to not only let the world experience his art but also to resemble the past during the Vietnam War. He has directed a film named “The Unburied Sounds of a Troubled Horizon,” which is the centerpiece of Tuan Andrew Nguyen: A Radiant Resemblance,” set to open at the New Museum of Manhattan in July. Less than a month ago, Nguyen was awarded with the 2023 Juan Miro Prize in Barcelona for his free imagination and radical visual poetics.

Nguyen’s work is mainly about the Vietnam War, which was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1954 to 1975. It ended in around 60,000 American deaths and 2 million Vietnamese deaths. There is even a monument named the Desire for National Reunification, placed in Quang Tri Province, central Vietnam, after the Vietnam War. It is on the edge of the Ben Hai River; for 21 years, it was the dividing line between North and South Vietnam. This area is loaded with unexploded bombshells and anyone who comes here may get blown apart.

Nguyen was born in Ho Chi Minh City in 1976. When he was only 2 years old, his parents escaped Vietnam as “boat people.” He grew up in Oklahoma, Texas and moved to Southern California where he discovered art as a student at the University of California, Irvine. He then earned a Master of Fine Arts from the California Institute of the Arts in 2004.

After graduating, Nguyen moved back to the city his parents had fled. For his entire life, all he had heard were endless stories about Vietnam. But he felt the need to understand and experience the place himself.

“It was very much out of necessity to try to ground myself there,” Nguyen told Vivian Crockett, the New Museum show’s curator in the forthcoming exhibition catalog. Born in Vietnam but spending his childhood in America, Crockett described his situation to a The New York Times journalist as “being of one place and another, and not really of either.” People who have grown up in e similar situations as Nguyen can easily relate to him which makes his work seem much more important.

The last time Nguyen was shown in an American art institution was 6 years ago when he was with The Propeller Group, known for their artful commentary. This time, both his films and artifacts he created for them will fill the 3rd-floor gallery space of the New Museum.

“Since The Propeller Group, a lot of my work has been about memory,” said the artist. “And how memory functions to help us deal with trauma. Intergenerational trauma.”

Nguyen told a New York Times journalist that he wanted to make a film about Quang Tri for years but never got to until the pandemic hit. During that time, he flew north and connected with Project Renew, an effort to disarm the unexploded bombshells.

He expressed that “you will hear bombs exploding in the distance every few hours,” these are the explosions managed by Project Renew. He also noticed that many people repurposed the bombshells so the people could see the artifacts everywhere.

The film “Unburied Sounds of a Troubled Horizon” tells the story of a fictional young woman living in Quang Tri who makes a living out of scavenging the metal from unexploded bombshells. Sculptor Alexander Calder and Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, who were both famous anti-war campaigners in the 1960s and the 1970s, are neatly woven into the film. The protagonist makes large Calder-esque mobiles out of bomb casings. When she finds a magazine article on Calder, she is convinced that she is his reincarnation. Searching for guidance, she travels to a Buddhist temple and is told by a monk that the temple bell was made out of a bomb that could have killed many people. He also told her that he “saw the immense compassion showed by the bomb because it chose not to explode.”

This film is also accompanied with two other films dealing with the legacy of French colonialism that show soldiers who were forced to fight against Vietnam or who deserted the French army to settle in Vietnam.

For Nguyen, he looked at art as a way for him to help people heal. “My starting point is Vietnam. But my ambition is to extend it beyond just the narrative of Vietnam,” he said.

Nguyen is teaching people around the world about the past and how we should learn from it. He is changing people’s lives because of the knowledge he presents. Some Vietnamese people can deeply connect with him. Nguyen is expressing a unique type of art that inspires others to be different.