Connecting people through art 

We are delighted to announce that Trương Công Tùng is the winner of the inaugural Han Nefkens Foundation – Southeast Asian Video Art Production Grant 2023, in collaboration with Sàn Art, Vietnam; Sa Sa Art Projects, Cambodia; the Jim Thompson Art Center, Thailand; Museion, Italy; Busan Museum of Art, South Korea and Prameya Art Foundation, India.

Trương Công Tùng was selected by a jury chaired by Mr. Han Nefkens and composed of Dinh Q. Le, Mary David, Phuong Anh Nguyen and Vicky Do members of San Art, Vietnam; Lyno Vuth, Chanveasna Chum and Lyna Kourn members of Sa Sa Art Project, Cambodia; Gridthiya Jeab Gaweewong Director at Jim Thompson Art Center, Thailand; Anushka Rajendran Curator at Prameya Art Foundation, India; KI Hey-Kyung Director of the Busan Museum of Art, South Korea and Bart van der Heide Director of Museion, Italy. The Jury meeting was held in the presence of Hilde Teerlinck, CEO and director of the Han Nefkens Foundation and Alessandra Biscaro, coordinator for the Han Nefkens Foundation.


The Selection Committee stated - "Trương Công Tùng was chosen unanimously thanks to the distinctive and intuitive approach in his work. His high-quality video productions offer poetic translations of complex histories, informed by his prior practice as a sculptor. We wish to praise Trương for his strong sense of self and we look forward to following the development of his versatile artistic practice."


"I'm impressed by Công Tùng's voice. He is not afraid of questioning ambiguities, and I'm confident that with this grant, he will take his exploration of how reality can be seen in fiction one step further." – Han Nefkens

"First of all, I wish to send my utmost gratitude to Han Nefkens and the entire art foundation team, judges, friends, relatives, and also to my ancestors of thousands of millennia - trees, grasses, worms, bugs, water, land and souls.... I would like to think my presence in this grant is because of your presence."
"Trương Công Tùng is just a mere phantasm without all of you, those who are not me in being defined as an individual, a person. The grant is an opportunity for me and other entities besides me to be closer, more connected to this world, to be able to understand, and to be able to love... a love that bears no discrimination. From sentient beings to inanimate species...."- Trương Công Tùng


Trương Công Tùng
Born in 1986, Trương Công Tùng grew up in Dak Lak among various ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands, Vietnam. He graduated from the Ho Chi Minh Fine Arts University in 2010, majoring in lacquer painting. With research interests in science, cosmology and philosophy and the environment, he works with a range of media, including video, installation, painting and found objects, which re-act personal contemplations on the cultural and geopolitical shifts of modernisation, as embodied in the morphing ecology, belief or mythology of a land. He is also a member of Art Labor (founded in 2012), a collective working between visual art and social/life sciences to produce alternative non-formal knowledge via artistic and cultural activities in various public contexts and locales.

Newly established in 2023, the Han Nefkens Foundation – Southeast Asian Video Art Production Grant aims to be a tool for increasing contemporary artistic production in the video art field and is directed at artists living in Southeast Asia. In order to consolidate the candidates' career, the Grant appraises artists living in that region who have established a solid trajectory but haven't yet had the opportunity to exhibit their work extensively. The production grant should serve as an important source of support and boost in the artist's career.


The initial selection of artists was made by internationally recognized art critics, curators and artists (nominated by each participating institution): Corey Pamela, Do Tuong Linh, Gleenson Erin, Abhijan Toto, Lim Jongeun, Nelson Roger, Nguyen Bill, Nguyen Trinh Thi, Park Jowoon, Perez Siddharta, Pich Sopheap and Pieracciani Loredana.

Trương Công Tùng will receive $15,000 for the production of a new work which will be presented at the partner institutions in Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Italy, South Korea and India.

The project will be developed in cooperation with the Netherlands Embassy and Consulate General in Vietnam  in the framework of NLVN50, 50 years of bilateral Netherlands Vietnam diplomatic relations.