Until the Water Washes Away the Shore exhibition at the Mirbach Palace

The extensive monographic exhibition Flower of Nguyen presents her latest work. It is conceived as a chrono-thematic visual reading of chapters in the story of the Vietnamese diaspora, from the post-war migration period in the era of socialist internationalism through the turning point of the Gentle Revolution to the present day. Through critical-poetic work with archives, Nguyen creates a space for the revival of muted voices and narratives.

In the object installation Land Records (2025), Nguyễn poetically disrupts space-time to recast the myth of the creation of his ancestral land through the perspective of a long history of colonial violence. Its later consequences and manifestations are also touched upon in the newly created film Borders of Our Pain (2025), which, through critical storytelling, reflects the existential feelings and experiences of the second generation of the Slovak-Vietnamese community in Slovakia. The film touches on themes of home and belonging, and indirectly appeals to the fading capacity for human empathy.

Nguyễn's work often refers to textual and visual content found in official state archives and media of the time, heavily tinged with racist and xenophobic narratives. This material, which challenges the false declaration of colonial innocence of the post-socialist countries of the Central European region, becomes a reflection surface for her.

By seeking out and presenting suppressed voices, it pays tribute to the resilience of marginalized communities and draws our attention to the power and need for collective, as well as individual, resistance.
The creative impulse of Kvet Nguyễn is the search for a visual language that could capture the tension of collective trauma while simultaneously transforming this experience towards a vision of a better, more just future. Nguyễn programmatically seeks and creates space for dreaming, hope, and the expression of desires that could serve as a catalyst for change.

This extensive solo presentation connects work from recent years with new works created especially for the exhibition, including the documentary film The Borders of Our Pain (2025). The exhibition also features the voices and words of educator Omar Beiruti, multidisciplinary artist Shivone Dominguez Blaščíková, artivist Kim Kona, and musician Adela Mede. A special place will also be reserved for a series of staged portraits of members of the Vietnamese and Cuban diaspora in the Czech Republic in the 80s, based on iconic photographs by Libuša Jarcovjáková.

Until the water washes away the shore
19. 6. - 23. 11. 
Mirbach Palace
https://gmb.sk/detail/kym-voda-nezmyje-breh

We look forward to seeing you! See you at the opening!

KVET NGUYỄN (Hoa Nguyễn Thị, *1995 Nové Zámky, SK) is a visual artist, doctoral student at the Department of Photography and New Media at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava. In her multidisciplinary work, she primarily deals with the theme of otherness in the context of post-socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe, and broader geopolitical contexts. Using the method of autoethnographic theory, she reflects on issues of double cultural identity through the categories of memory, migration, exile and desire.

Nguyễn received the 2024 Oskar Čepan Award (jointly with Svetlana Fialová, Paula Malinowska, and Tomáš Moravanský) and completed a residency at the Delfina Foundation in London in 2024.

She is the author of the autobiographical essay Everything That Connects Us (2024). Her most recent solo and group projects have been realized at the 35m2 Gallery (Prague, CZ), tranzit.sk (Bratislava, SK), The Július Koller Society (Bratislava, SK), Kunsthalle Bratislava (SK), VCCA (Hanoi, VN) and Center A (Vancouver, CA).