The state of things

LOCATION

93 Đinh Tiên Hoàng

EXHIBITION DATE

01.11 – 30.11.2025

EXHIBITION DATE

05.11.2025 – 10:00

ORGANIZERS

A room full of Bert Danckaert photographs resembles a gallery of paintings. The works are large, and, at first glance, they appear to be composed of simple organic or geometric shapes in flat color, classically arranged within the ubiquitous and intuitive photographic rectangle. We are reminded of Mark Rothko, rather than Walker Evans. 

A closer examination reveals random remnants of human activity with the encyclopedic detail that only photography can render. There is no doubt that these images are rooted in the real world, yet their formal aesthetic power dominates, confounding the desire for information that photographs usually satisfy. 

We are challenged to understand the intentions of this observant and contemplative photographer, whose captured fragments of the world are both true and transcendent, but the works themselves may encourage us to embrace their contradictions in much the same way the artist does. 

The ambiguities that Danckaert finds and constructs are a primary feature of his work, but they are also intrinsic to the very nature of photography. The tension these elements create is the source of the power these photographs manifest. Though many of them are beautiful, they are not simply decorative. Though they are the result of travel, they are more about inward journeys.

ARTIST

Bert Danckaert

Recent Posts
Exhibitions

Triennial examination at the end of the 19th century

01.11 - 30.11.2025, Temple of Literature
Read More →
Exhibitions

Journal of a dazed one

01.11 - 30.11.2025, 2 Lê Thái Tổ - Fl. 2
Read More →
Exhibitions

A season of revelation

01.11 - 30.11.2025, Institut Français de Hanoi
Read More →
Exhibitions

Continuum: Vietnam

01.11 - 30.11.2025, 2 Lê Thái Tổ - Fl. 1
Read More →