Vin Gallery proudly presents At the brink of the moment | Bên bờ khoảnh khắc by Trần Trọng Vũ. As an artist, he was drawn to unease, precarious balance, and unfinished gestures. He lingers at moments' brink, before the fall or after the scream, when things shift from their original state without collapsing. He goes beyond the notion of crafting linear narratives. He created images that emerge at arbitrary moments, staged without context, inviting doubt and silence. Gathered from Vietnam, France, streets, news, and fiction, in this show, he fragments and reassembles these pieces onto another reality. What matters isn't the event itself, but the tremors at the moment's edge.
Artist statement
The world overflows with images, flowing endlessly through fleeting and hesitant moments, through those that exist yet are not entirely real, and through moments that neither begin nor-end, fragile threads woven into the dense fabric of time. At the brink of these uncertain moments, there are hesitant gestures, there are worlds swirling gently, softly, quietly, there are objects that tilt without collapsing. A moment before all moments.
As an artist, I am drawn to the unease through all things, to the precarious balance and the fleeting imbalance, to the gesture left unfinished. I endeavor to linger at the brink of the moments, just before a fall, or right after a scream. When things have yet to deform, yet have already slipped away from their original state. When nothing has collapsed, yet everything is swaying on the verge.
I do not tell a grand story that moves neatly from beginning to end. The images I capture arise at any arbitrary moment, placed onto a stage without a backstage. They open space for doubt, for speculation, and allow silence to seep through. These are what I gather in Vietnam, in France, on the streets, in the news, in fiction, and elsewhere. I fragment them and reassemble the pieces, never precisely, onto another crumpled reality.
Each painting and its title form a tightly bound relation. They follow one another, from image to word or from word to image, in order to build a complete work. What matters to me, therefore, is not the event itself, if such an event exists, but the tremors that dwell at the brink of the moment.