Uncatalogued: Vietnam and Archives of Visual Culture

Organised by artist Jacqueline Hoàng Nguyễn and Afterall Editor Adeena Mey, Uncatalogued: Vietnam and Archives of Visual Culture is a three-day symposium focusing on documents pertaining to Vietnamese histories, including propaganda posters, architectural drawings, musical scores, wartime illustrations, and photographs held in personal or para-institutional contexts. Whether state-produced or grassroots in origin, these materials offer invaluable insights into transnational visual echoes, revealing how images and ideas circulated across borders.

Events:

Friday 27th June - 6-8pm - MayDay Rooms - Vietnamese Revolutionary Art in Global Context

Join Minh Nguyen, writer, researcher, and curator of Dogma Collection, for a presentation on the vibrant visual language of Vietnamese revolutionary culture. Through rare archival materials and comparative analysis, we will examine how Vietnam's socialist and anticolonial movements created visual narratives that resonated across international solidarity networks.

The evening explores the striking parallels between Vietnamese revolutionary graphics and grassroots movements worldwide, examining how visual culture became a tool of resistance and identity formation during the era of decolonization and anti-imperialism. Nguyen will also discuss the particular work of independent archival practices in preserving histories of state socialist cultures.

The presentation features a curated display of original Vietnamese revolutionary materials alongside comparative pieces from MayDayRooms.

Saturday 28th June - 1-7pm - Dalston CLR James Library (Education Room) - Scattered Evidence: Working with Dispersed Documents

Join us for a series of conversations and talks, reflecting on the unofficial, overlooked, and often fragile archives that exist in relation to Vietnamese culture. The conversation will consider how these materials shape memory, history and creative practice in relation to Vietnam. Speakers include:

Sunday 29th June - 1.30-4.30pm - Dalston CLR James Library/Hackney Archives - Against Erasure: Dinh Q. Lê, Photography and the Everyday

In memory of Dinh Q. Lê (1965–2024, Vietnam), artist Jacqueline Hoàng Nguyễn will lead a workshop reflecting on the everyday in Vietnam. For Dinh Q. Lê, collecting photographs was a way to reclaim cultural memory and personal identity through the often-overlooked language of the quotidian. This workshop explores methods for preserving vernacular photographs and aims to develop both visual and theoretical tools for engaging with found photographs—foregrounding kinship, care and intimacy in the face of historical transformation. Participants should be photo enthusiasts—whether photo historians, researchers working with photographic archives, custodians of pre-Đổi Mới (pre-1986) Vietnamese photography, or photographers and visual artists.

This workshop is limited to 12 participants. If you would like to attend, please email Jacqueline Hoàng Nguyễn (Jacqueline.hoang.nguyen@konstfack.se) with 1-2 paragraphs outlining why you are interested in taking part. The workshop encourages the participation of anyone interested in archives, vietnamese history and related artistic practices. Once you have sent your info via e-mail, Jacqueline will be in touch to confirm if a slot is available. All participants will be contacted no later than 48 hours prior to the event.

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The symposium is organised with artist Jacqueline Hoàng Nguyễn and Afterall’s Curator Adeena Mey, in collaboration with IC Visual Lab (Bristol) and Dogma Collection (Ho Chi Minh City). The symposium coincides with the exhibition 'Mangrove Theatre: The Wartime Photography of Võ An Khánh', taking place at IC Visual Lab, 24th June - 21st September 2025.

Find more info or book your free tickets at Eventbrite