Till the Water Meets the Shore/Kým voda nezmyje breh/

Through her personal, translocal and transhistoric take on the story of the Vietnamese diaspora in former Czechoslovakia, Nguyễn addresses the legacy of colonialism, intergenerational trauma of war and displacement. In her practice, she pits her individual and artistic agency against various forms and manifestations of racism, xenophobia and lack of universal solidarity.

The publication features three newly commissioned essays. The Art Historian and Curator Denisa Tomková contextualizes Nguyễn’s practice against the socio-political aspects of the Vietnamese mobility within the socialist internationalism framework, whilst Daniel Grúň highlights the artist´s distinctive approach to archives. Dominika Moravčíková looks at the lexicology of migration and displacement with the poetic sensibility of a Writer. The catalogue includes a conversation between the artist and the exhibition Curator Zuzana Flašková, and is accompanied by extensive photographic documentation of all the works installed in the exhibition.

We would like to thank the ERSTE Foundation for its support in enabling the production of this monographic publication.

We would like to express our gratitude to Dana Hlavačková and Marián Hlavačka for their support, which made this publication possible.

We would like to thank the artist Libuše Jarcovjáková and the curator Lucie Černá for providing the installation and the reproductions of work titled Brotherly Cooperation, 1981–1984 from the retrospective exhibition Libuše Jarcovjáková (Trade Fair Palace, National Gallery Prague, 27/9/2024 –30/03/2025).

Special thanks go to those who provided Kvet Nguyễn with access to archival materials, personal collections, and valuable information.