Historical research on contemporary art in Vietnam often takes the 1990s as the starting point owing to the relative volume of unprecedented artistic forms that not only got featured in international exhibitions but also provoked opposing domestic responses. For a more detailed account of the beginnings of contemporary art in Vietnam, see Nora A. Taylor and Pamela N. Corey, “Đổi Mới and the Globalization of Vietnamese Art,” Journal of Vietnamese Studies 14, no. 1 (2019): 1–34.
Contemporary forms such as installation and performance have shown up in national art schools in Vietnam, but often only in elective courses or workshops. One such instance dates back to 1995, when German artist Veronika Radulovic, then a visiting lecturer at the Vietnam University of Fine Arts, brought Singaporean artist Amanda Heng into her classroom to hold a performance art workshop. In recent years, some new public and private universities have been established with course offerings in contemporary art, such as Fulbright University Vietnam, with its first cohort having graduated in 2023, and VNU School of Interdisciplinary Sciences and Art, which admitted the first batch of contemporary art degree seekers in 2024.
The writer acknowledges that instances of contemporary art forms realizing in state-owned spaces exist, such as Trương Tân’s provocative paintings and multi-media installation at the Hanoi University of Fine Arts in 1992 and independent art spaces housed in national museums like Blue Space in the Ho Chi Minh City Museum of Fine Arts from 1997 to 2010 and Viet Art Center in the Vietnam University of Fine Arts from 2006 to 2013. It is beyond the scope of this essay to evaluate the impact of these instances in the development of contemporary art in Vietnam.
An article by The Economist suggests that the closure of Zone 9 might have been brought upon by parties with economic interests in the real estate. See M.S., “Zone 9, deep-sixed,” The Economist, January 28, 2014, ➝.
According to the General Statistics Office of Vietnam, the average monthly income of an employed worker in Hanoi in 2022 is 8.858.900 VND, which is around 375 USD at the time.
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Examples include the Outpost Art Organization in 2022, Hanoi, and Nguyễn Art Foundation in 2018 and Quang San Museum in 2023, Hồ Chí Minh City.
Since 2021, the municipal authorities of Hanoi and the Vietnam Association of Architects have organized the yearly Hanoi Festival of Creative Design, which actively enlists independent art organizers and organizations for art exhibitions, public installations and seminars.
