Thu Van Trans’s (*1979 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, lives and works in Paris) experiences as a Vietnamese woman living in France provide a key conceptual framework for the genesis of her work. In a poetic as well as political way she deals with the colonial history of her native country and from this deduces fundamental questions about the effects of power and exploitation. Her works vividly show how the Western view of the occupying power on the population of the colonies manifests itself in the historical narrative. Her work échec de Petrópolis (2018), produced for Neuer Berliner Kunstverein and consisting of a lavishly crafted chessboard with handmade natural rubber chess pieces, refers to the writer Stefan Zweig. He ended his life in exile in Petrópolis (Brazil) after writing his last work Die Schachnovelle (The Royal Game) (1942). Petrópolis was founded in 1825 by German colonists. Rubber, the raw material frequently used by Tran, is symbolic of the exploitation of the colonies by colonial powers.

Thu Van Trans’s works were recently shown at Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2017); Venice Biennale (2017), Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (2016); Royal Museums of Fine Arts, Brussels (2014); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2014); Palais des Beaux-Arts, Paris (2011, 2006).