The exhibition Vietnam. Art. GDR. Reclaiming Solidarity examines the cultural and economic exchange between the GDR and Vietnam from various artistic perspectives.
Image gallery
Ausstellungsgrafik Vietnam. Kunst. DDR.
Claudia Borchers, Portrait einer vietnamesischen Studentin, 1973
Fungi, Eiseck (aus der Serie: Mein ferner Osten), 2020/21
The focus is on the GDR’s international solidarity with Vietnam. This solidarity held great political and social significance, particularly during the Vietnam War, and was also reflected in the arts. Posters, prints, portfolios, and paintings—including works from the Kunstsammlung der Berliner Volksbank—highlight the ambivalence of this artistic output, which oscillated between personal empathy, anti-imperialist state propaganda, and cultural stereotypes.
At the same time, the exhibition turns its attention to Vietnamese artists who studied in the GDR, as well as to contemporary artists who critically engage with the realities of life for Vietnamese “contract workers.” They highlight the tensions between the GDR’s official rhetoric of solidarity and the everyday lives of Vietnamese people, which were often marked by exclusion and external control.
In their works, Nguyễn Phương Thanh, Fungi, Minh Duc Pham, and Tra My Nguyen draw on family histories, memories, and material traces to show how the experiences of the “contract workers” continue to resonate across generations.
In this way, the exhibition offers a multifaceted artistic reflection on the relationship between the GDR and Vietnam and on the question of how solidarity is defined, experienced, and continually renegotiated.
