Ecologies of Water
The project connects cultural institutions and Leipzig-based companies with artists from Vietnam and Leipzig. For this bilateral exchange, the Sàn Art Gallery in Ho Chi Minh City entered into a partnership with the LIA – Leipzig International Art Programme international residency program in 2023. The Department for International Cooperation of the City of Leipzig, the German-Vietnamese House Leipzig, Aone AG, and the Leipzig Municipal Waterworks supported this first initiative. In 2024, the Leipzig Trade Fair joined as a new partner.
LIA is a non-profit artist residency that maintains a long-standing exchange with Southeast Asia through cooperation with local Goethe-Instituts and the Federal Foreign Office. It supports international artists by providing them with spacious studios, exhibition opportunities at home and abroad, cultural support, and fellowships. In 2023, Maix Mayer (Leipzig) was invited by the Sàn Art Gallery to Ho Chi Minh City for one month. In return, LIA awarded a fellowship to Quynh Lam (Ho Chi Minh City). She spent a three-month stay in Leipzig and produced an etching at the Vlado & Maria Ondrej Studio for Etching. Maix Mayer and Quynh Lam subsequently exhibited together at the archiv massiv in the Spinnerei in Leipzig in July 2023. Nguyen Linh Chi was the second LIA fellowship recipient of the 2024 program. To date, the artists have dealt with the artistic, scientific, and technological aspects of the conservation and regeneration of ecosystems related to the theme of water, as well as forms of storytelling in which they researched local myths and narratives. This bilateral exchange promotes interdisciplinary dialogue, reflection, research, and professional networking opportunities for both sides.
Exhibition “Pacific Leipzig” at the Deutsches Haus Ho Chi Minh City
From 2020 to 2022, 15 artists from Southeast Asia and New Zealand participated in the international LIA residency program in Leipzig for 3 months each. The exchange with Vietnam had its beginnings here. The fellowships were awarded by the Goethe-Institut network in Southeast Asia in collaboration with LIA. Some fellows also worked with Leipzig artists as mentors during their stay in Leipzig. They all created an etching at the Vlado & Maria Ondrej Studio for Contemporary Etching. There, they were instructed, for example, in etching techniques such as photogravure or aquatint. The etching workshop became a direct source of cultural exchange between all participants. The exhibition in Ho Chi Minh City became the visual expression of these cultural encounters. The exhibition at the Deutsches Haus was opened by the Consul General in Vietnam, Dr. Josefine Wallat, Mpangi Otte (then Director of the Goethe-Institut), and Torsten Bonew (Mayor for Finance of the City of Leipzig), as well as Anna-Louise Rolland (LIA Director and Founder). We thank the German-Vietnamese House Leipzig and the Department for International Cooperation of the City of Leipzig, as well as the Goethe-Instituts, who made this exhibition possible.
