Nhà Sàn Collective

It is a place that is open toward works in progress and the unexpected; a just-do-it attitude that does not always yield answers. Some of the collective’s main projects, which have been held on numerous occasions, include Skylines With Flying People, IN:ACT Performance Art Festival, Queer Forever!, and the Emerging Artists Programme. The collective board consists of Trương Quế Chi, Nguyễn Phương Linh, Nguyễn Quốc Thành, Vũ Đức Toàn, and Tuấn Mami.

The name Nhà Sàn signifies the collective’s foundation which is rooted in the spirit of Nhà Sàn Studio, an artist-run space founded in 1998 in Hanoi. The original Nhà Sàn, a house on stilts, was taken apart in 2020. In the Ngọc Thụy area by the bank of the Red River, the artists imagine this house to become the new Nhà Sàn Collective space, rebuilt, and transformed.

For documenta fifteen, Nhà Sàn Collective traces a metaphorical connection from a Vietnamese bến (harbor) to the Fulda. By the river in Kassel, two performance installations stage the arrival of the playground installation, transporting the architectural materials, along with its community and their lived experiences. The collective also invites visitors to join them in cultivating a garden of migratory plants and narratives, joyful companionship inside a queer house with a sauna, offering haircuts, homemade wine and hosting discussions, workshops, as well as parties. Throughout the summer a series of events takes place in Ngọc Thuỵ, Hanoi, by the Red River, concluded by Nhà Sàn Collective’s open house party.