BAO VUONG

Bao Vuong was born in Vietnam in the late 70s. With his parents, he fled by sea as a consequence of a fratricidal war. Like thousands of boat people, he was welcomed to France after a long and perilous journey. After obtaining his master’s degree in Fine Arts, Bao decided to return to Vietnam in 2013, years after crossing the oceans. He produced the pictorial series The Crossing, exhibited at A2Z in 2021, which testifies to exile, pays tribute to the many migrants who left their country to the rhythm of the raging waves, sinking into the darkness of the night and the uncertainty of their destinies.

In the continuity of this series, the new exhibition Horizons invites the visitor to take an introspective journey. The question of exile is certainly raised once again, but the exhibition invites the visitor to enjoy the beauty of a seascape and beyond that his own life path, his own wanderings, his own solitude and without which the experience and the self-discovery would not be so strong. Knowing one’s shadow to better reveal one’s light.

n Bao’s painting, the emotional charge of the monochromes springs from these knife-worked waves, they collide with the horizon, smooth and calm. The horizon, this line that keeps receding back as we move forward, fascinates us and invites us to dream of another world filled with promises and opportunities.

In this new exhibition, Bao integrates a new material: incense. It echoes the ancestor worship, specific to Asian culture. The ash of the burnt incense sticks are placed on the canvas and draws the passing clouds. Like the smoke of incense during prayers, it connects the visible world to the invisible world, the livings to the the deads. Here again, Bao signifies the passage from one world to another, the crossing of a horizon line.