artLIVE – ‘Anh Ma and the Serpent’s Mark’ – ‘10,000 Years in a Moment’ present two parallel streams of artistic expression flowing within the same space — where words fall short, and only the eyes and the heart can truly grasp the depth of beauty within.
‘Anh Ma and the Serpent’s Mark’ – The horse crossing time
Born in 1988, Florian Song Nguyen is a French – Vietnamese artist living and working between Paris, Ho Chi Minh City and Marrakech. Centering his practice on painting, he treats it as a medium for preserving memories, sparking imagination, and connecting humans with other forms of life.
Alongside painting, his artistic practice expands into installation, performance, artist books, and collaborative projects, where myth and life intertwine, creating dreamlike narratives that gently slip into the real.
Florian’s works have been exhibited internationally at the 12th Berlin Biennale (2022), Drawing Now Paris (2024, 2025) and at the French Institute in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, A2Z Art Gallery (Paris, 2025), and Metaxu (France, 2020).
He is also the author of two artist books: “Tu sais les insectes aussi ont besoin d’amour” (2022) and “Les chiens errants” (2024).
Currently, his research focuses on mythology, exploring how ancient tales mirror history and offer new perspectives on the connection between humankind and the natural world.
The first part of the exhibition features a large – scale mural centered around the image of a horse, surrounded by mirrored hands and twin serpents ascending upward. The second part delves into the symbolism of the serpent, a metaphor for transformation, rebirth, and the enduring vitality of nature.
In this project, Florian transforms his studio into a ritual-like, symbolic space where the horse reappears across multiple layers of time, real, remembered, and imagined. For him, the horse is not merely a being but an allegory for the fragile boundary between human and animal, myth and reality, the tangible and the ethereal.
From the delicacy of dó and xuân paper to the heaviness of metal, Florian weaves a story of memory and invisible threads that link humanity with nature — where strength and fragility, endurance and vulnerability coexist and mirror one another.
The two parts of the exhibition breathe together like two heartbeats, blending history with myth, memory with transformation, forming a “living archive” where recollection and imagination constantly move, collide, and evolve.
‘10,000 Years in a Moment’ – Emotions anchored on Điệp paper
Mifa, born in 1990 in Da Nang, pursues painting through acrylic on điệp paper. Since 2015, she has continuously explored experimental directions, gradually shaping a personal style infused with the essence of traditional Vietnamese lacquer painting.
In her process, she skillfully blends Eastern elements such as gold leaf, calligraphy, watercolor, hand printing, and layered paper, crafting a visual language that harmonizes the classical and the contemporary.
For Mifa, painting is a way to reconnect with Eastern identity amid the global flow, preserving the Vietnamese folk spirit while breathing into it the rhythm of the present.
Her works have been shown at Yunnan Museum of Literature and Art and the Xishuangbanna Nationalities Museum (China), as well as in numerous exhibitions across Hanoi, Saigon, Da Lat, and Da Nang.
The exhibition “10,000 Years in a Moment” leads viewers on a journey through traces and memories on điệp paper. Each stroke feels both fossil-like and lightning-fast, reminding us that while stone takes millennia to hold a mark, human pain and experience can etch themselves in an instant.
Her paintings balance resilience and fragility, ritual and everyday life. During her residency at the open studio, Mifa expanded her practice by combining gold plating and traditional calligraphy with new experiments in ceramics — a material she explored for the first time.
For Mifa, creation is an intuitive journey, a spontaneous dialogue between emotion and chance. She once shared: “Creating art is like a natural conversation — you never know what the other side will say; all you can do is stay open to the unexpected and turn it into something beautiful.”
Drawing inspiration from Vietnamese folk art, Persian poetry, and Asian calligraphy, Mifa constructs a pictorial world where past and present, personal and collective memory converge. There, memories fossilize and awaken, prompting reflection on time, presence, and the enduring vitality of the human spirit.
Though distinct in form, the two exhibitions meet at the intersection of memory and renewal: one exploring the connection between humanity and nature, the other rediscovering Eastern identity through traditional materials.
“Anh Ma and the Serpent’s Mark” and “10,000 Years in a Moment” will be on view from October 24 to November 23, 2025, at VAC Hanoi, 6/44/11 To Ngoc Van Street, Tay Ho, Hanoi.
Note: The exhibition will be temporarily closed from November 9–17.
Photos: VAC Hanoi
