Introduction

The exhibition not only included projects that revolved around the human and material consequences of the two Vietnam wars, led by France and the United States, but it also established a dialogue between Joan Miró and Alexander Calder, both proponents of Western art of the Cold War era. That dialogue is voiced by both the characters in Nguyen's films and installations, and the artworks and objects featured in these projects: Calder reincarnates in the body of a Vietnamese woman; an unexploded bomb talks of its fate as it is buried and detonated; letters written and read to estranged or deceased parents have the power to evoke and pierce family legacies.