Tu?n Andrew Nguy?n’s new two-channel video Ñi demoon ñoo dellusi connects Vietnam and Senegal through a history that rarely fits neatly inside either country’s national story.
During French colonial rule, Senegalese soldiers were deployed to Indochina. Some formed families with Vietnamese women. After the wars, parts of those families travelled to Senegal, carrying several histories with them.
Nguy?n encountered descendants of these families while working in Dakar. His 2026 Venice Biennale installation centres on Bouba Chinois, now elderly, whose Vietnamese mother ??i became one of the emotional anchors of the work. Archival photographs and family material are placed beside his present-day image.
What interests me is how moving image changes the archive.
A photograph freezes somebody inside historical evidence.
Video allows that person to answer back.
The older Bouba can look toward photographs of the younger family from which his story emerged. Several times exist inside the installation simultaneously.
This is where two-channel video becomes more than a presentation format.
One screen does not have to replace another.
Past and present can remain visible together.
History usually gives us timelines.
Nguy?n gives us coexistence.
A person can be Senegalese, Vietnamese, colonial history, family memory and contemporary presence without having to become only one of them.
https://www.labiennale.org/en/art/2026/tu%E1%BA%A5n-andrew-nguy%E1%BB%85n
