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The Substation (Singapore), in partnership with Á Space (Hanoi, Vietnam), introduces the inaugural edition of Sub+ Incubator Collabs. As independent, non-profit arts communities, this two-month incubation collaboration brings together a mutual passion for supporting and developing diverse creative practices with a flexible, hybrid setup of in-studio and online interaction.
Sub+ Á Space Incubator Collabs runs from 26 Feb to 27 Apr 2024, with guidance from Á’s curatorial board member, Linh Le, and The Sub’s programme advisor, Yuni Hadi, plus peer support from guest artists and mentors invited specially for this edition.
Founded in 2018, Á Space is an independent non-profit art space and a community of art practitioners engaged in experimental practices based in Long Biên, Hà Nội.
Established in 1990, The Substation is one of Singapore’s pioneering independent arts organisations, with a vision to build a regional community through art-making and dialogue.
Sub+ Á Space Incubator Collabs: First up on our new incubator programme is an emerging Hanoi-based visual artist Linh San (@san_studio_san), whose work in poetry, moving images, and ceramics depict the contemplative moments of daily life.
Building from her work at #SoloMarathon at Á Space in 2022, Linh San will be focusing on her ceramic practice for Sub+, particularly on material experiments and spatial investigations. A three-storey unfinished unit in Hanoi provides a backdrop for possibilities as Linh San develops her ideas from scratch and reflects on how spaces are formed and in-formed by environmental and architectural considerations.
Linh San’s poems have appeared in notable platforms (The Margins, Poetry Translation Centre) and short films screened at Hanoi Goethe-Institut (Hanoi Doclab 2019) and National Museum of Indonesia ( Jakarta Biennale 2021). Her first solo show, ‘no longer holding a cloud’ (Á Space, 2022), marked over a year-long journey of working in ceramics. A Literature graduate from Hanoi National University of Education, San most recently received the Prince Claus Seed Award 2023 as an emerging artist.
[Photo 2] ‘nights’, 2022 (detail) by Linh San – porcelain, variable dimensions, from ‘no longer holding a cloud’. Photo by Đan Nguyễn, courtesy of the artist and Á Space.
No stranger to Singapore and The Substation, Linh Lê (@linnhlee) is an independent curator and researcher based in Ho Chi Minh City, and currently a member of Á Space’s curatorial board, who brings her curatorial sensitivity and research expertise as Sub+ mentor for our participating artist, Linh San.
Linh Lê explores the (im)possibilities of the archive, and the potential encounters between performance- and exhibition-making. With the local community at heart, her curatorial scope extends to arts publishing, discussions, workshops, and teaching, with recent projects in arts education for youths in Ho Chi Minh City, a self-initiated journal on Vietnamese arts & culture, and curatorial work for Á Space in Hanoi and Galerie Quynh Contemporary Art in HCMC. An arts management graduate of Singapore’s Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), Linh Lê is currently research fellow at ArtsEquator’s Southeast Asian Arts Censorship Database project.
Linh Lê’s curatorial range is a supportive complement to Linh San’s (@san_studio_san) project for Sub+—with the impermanence of Linh San’s intended material research and process, and the possible intersection between San’s ceramic/visual art practice and the performative aspects of her other works in poetry and moving image.
A special session with Singapore ceramic artist, Jason Lim, as a guest mentor for Linh San’s work-in-progress at the incubation programme. We are grateful for Jason’s time in sharing his experience and guidance with our participating artist.