iHaus der KunstLehel
Diane Severin Nguyen
Vietnamese-American artist Diane Severin Nguyen explores the politics of victimhood and how perceptions of violence shape identity, in a commissioned film with photography, sculpture and a kinetic installation.
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Preview: written before the show opened
A girl leaves home against her mother's wishes and walks out into the Bavarian Alps while a helicopter circles above, carrying an American folk band. That is the film at the centre of this show, Powerless, seen mostly through drone, surveillance and body-worn cameras. Chisenhale Gallery, which co-commissioned it, says the helicopter offers "at once an escape and a recruitment".
Nguyen, a Vietnamese-American artist born in 1990, started out in photography, and this premiere surrounds the film with new photographs, sculptures and a participatory kinetic installation. Her subject is what she calls "the double bind of the sentimental gaze": people who have suffered violence are pushed to show vulnerability and punished for it. You watch the film caught, in the museum's words, "between sky and ground in a moving pursuit".
It fills the Südgalerie and the Mittelhalle. A ticket is €15 (€11 reduced, €5 for students), under-12s go free, it's closed Tuesdays, and entry is free on the last Friday of the month from 4pm to 10pm.
Editor's pick
A commissioned film anchors Diane Severin Nguyen's show, with photography, sculpture and a kinetic installation, on the politics of victimhood and how perceptions of violence shape identity.
Look for
Powerless, the new film
Look for the helicopter: drone, surveillance and body-worn cameras follow a child through an Alpine landscape while it circles overhead with a folk band aboard.
Good for
- Nerding Out
- Out-Of-Town Guests
With kids
Children under 12 go free, and pupils and students from 12 pay €5.
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Image credits
7
- Diane Severin NguyenCourtesy of Haus der Kunst
- Stonehenge. Ancient Discoveries, New MysteriesCourtesy of Bavarian State Archaeological Collection
- Liminal SpacesCourtesy of Bavarian National Museum
- Haus der KunstAvda / www.avda-foto.de, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Bavarian State Archaeological CollectionBurkhard Mücke / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
- Bavarian National MuseumRufus46, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Munich ResidenzAvi1111 dr. avishai teicher / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0