Vũ Đức Toàn

– A visual artist based in Hanoi, Vietnam
– Graduated from Department of Criticism, History and Theory at the Vietnam University of Fine Art in 2007

#Practices

Primarily working with performance and installation, Vũ Đức Toàn has consistently engaged with the correlation between the spectator and the performer, the social rituals, as well as historical lapses of time that punctuate or bridge between past and present. His works often begin with simple concepts, and then are materialized through the repetition of performative gestures or visual motifs and through a laconic yet capacious selection of objects and materiality.

Toàn has participated in many exhibitions and performance art events locally and internationally, such ‘Returning to the island of South‘ Performance Art Festival (Taiwan, 2017), solo exhibition ‘Disorderly Departure‘ (Nhà sàn Collective, Hanoi, 2017),MoT+++ Performance Residency and Exhibition (HCMC, 2017),Guyu Action (China – Hong Kong – Taiwan, 2016), PAN ASIA 5 (Seoul, Korea, 2012),’U lành tính‘ (L’Espace, Hanoi, 2011)…

In 2010, Vũ Đức Toàn and Nguyễn Huy An founded ‘The Appendix Group‘, a performance artist group then including 6 members: Vũ Đức Toàn, Nguyễn Huy An, Nguyễn Song, Ngô Thành Bắc, Nguyễn Dương Hải Đăng and Hoàng Minh Đức. The Appendix Group is recognized as an outstanding performance group in Vietnam that pioneered group performance with a signature aesthetics blending vernacular sensibility with composition, imbued with symbols rich in constant contemplation of the bygones and anticipation of the time.

Since 2005, Toàn has also worked as an editor at the Association of Fine Art and its affiliated magazine. He is a member of the Curatorial Board at Nhà Sàn Collective starting from 2013, where he has mentored several generations of younger artists, as well as curating ‘Skylines with Flying People 4‘ with the Appendix Group (King’s Storage, Hanoi, 2020).