The camera shutter interrupts time, layering and blurring it. ‘Shutterscape’, a group exhibition proposed by Á Space and co-curated by Đặng Thùy Anh and Vân Đỗ, examines the entanglement of photography and performance: where photographs not only document but also stage and frame actions; where performance emerges as imprint, re-enactment, or landscape slice; and where photography moves beyond capturing the moment to act as fold, intervention, and reflection on reality. In these crossings, the boundary between “performance” and “image” unsettles—photographs perform, while performances leave their trace like photographs—together producing a shifting field where memory, body, and reality blur, overlap, and transform.

While performance is traditionally experienced in real time, photography has long served to capture, preserve, and reactivate its fleeting moments. Moving beyond this documentary function, this exhibition explores ways in which the camera can engage with, intervene in, or respond to the making of performance, resulting in autonomous works that exist in dialogue with live performance rather than merely documenting it. In doing so, the exhibition invites viewers to reflect on how photography can reshape the experience of performance and open up new aesthetic possibilities, prompting us to consider what lies beyond the frame.

The exhibition emerges from the shared interest of Đặng Thuỳ Anh and Vân Đỗ in expanding the possibilities of performance practice—a core programming focus of Á Space, where both are based and actively engaged. Rather than positioning performance and photography as two separate fields, the exhibition investigates performance works that manifest in photographic form as well as photographic works with performative qualities, aiming to foster interdisciplinary dialogue and blur categorical boundaries. Within the framework of the exhibition, a talk on copyright, authorship, and conceptual intersections between performance and photography will be organized, alongside a commissioned essay by artist Quỳnh Đông reflecting on the relationship between performance and image, and a dialogical text with Jamie Maxtone-Graham expanding on his series ‘Lying Down’ (2012). The exhibition also acknowledges the contributions of those who have documented performance works with cameras—whether or not they call themselves photographers—for it is through their efforts that performance continues to exist in another form.

Á Space is an independent, non-profit art space dedicated to experimental practices in Long Biên, Hanoi. Founded in 2018 by Tuấn Mami, Rory Gill, and Lê Dụng Hiệp, Á Space’s mission is to support and cultivate emerging artists in Vietnam, where art infrastructure remains limited. The space is currently run by a curatorial board consisting of Châu Hoàng, Đặng Thuỳ Anh, Hà Ninh, Vũ Đức Toàn, Linh Lê, and Vân Đỗ. Notable projects initiated by Á Space include ‘Solo Marathon’ (2018–present), ‘Conference on Curating in Vietnam’ (2024–present), and ‘Ô Cách Cinema’ (2023, 2025).

‘SHUTTERSCAPE’ is organized as part of the Photo Hanoi ’25 International Photography Biennale, with the support of the Vincom Center for Contemporary Art (VCCA).