Maschinenhaus M2
In her work, Thu-Van Tran (born 1979 in Ho Chi Minh City, lives in Paris) explores the political interconnections between countries and the colonial legacy, traces of which are still visible in many places—in language, bodies, and landscapes.
Image gallery
Thu-Van Tran, New Colors of Grey (Roma), 2026
Thu-Van Tran, Human Track, 2025
At KINDL, the artist presents her latest works—some of which were developed specifically for the exhibition—including ceramics, paintings, and drawings, which address the ecological and traumatic consequences of colonialism in Vietnam and Australia, as well as their reverberations in Europe. *Write As Beasts Scream at Night* thus invokes the forces of nature’s resistance, which quietly but persistently rebel against the harm inflicted by humans.
Through her newly produced graphite drawings from the series *Trail Dust* as well as her ceramics created in Australia, Thu-Van Tran draws attention to landscapes that have been permanently altered by bushfires, resource extraction, and a history marked by violence.
Among other things, the Western Australian region around the “Golden Mile”—which runs through land claimed by various Aboriginal groups and is marked by enormous open-pit mines—serves as a reference point. In doing so, Tran deepens her reflection on fire as a destructive yet also spiritual and transformative force, as well as on lands scarred by conflict and the memory inscribed within them.
- *Write As Beasts Scream at Night* is a co-production of KINDL – Center for Contemporary Art and the French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici.
Supported by the Office of Visual Arts of the Institut français Germany and the French Ministry of Culture
- Curators: Kathrin Becker & Magdalena Mai
As part of Berlin Art Week 2026
