Take My Breath Away by Dahn Vo

Copenhagen, 2018

Produced together with Kvadrat, the large retrospective Take My Breath Away the Vietnamese-born Danish contemporary artist Dahn Vo opened at National Gallery of Denmark, SMK, in Copenhagen on August 30th 2018.

Composed of more than 75 pieces of art including several new works produced especially for SMK – Take My Breath Away is the most comprehensive overview of Danh Vo’s artistic practice. While the exhibition fills the museum’s exhibition rooms, the artist has also taken over the museum’s Sculpture Street for a very special project.

In his art, Danh Vo often uses his personal history as the starting point for discussing universal themes such as migration, globalisation and desire. He has an exceptional ability to lift existing objects out of their original context, and interweave them to form new narratives about identity and culture.

A longtime admirer of Nanna Ditzel, Danh Vo has in collaboration with Kvadrat delved into the archives of the prominent designer. Together with Kvadrat’s Design Director Stine Find Osther, he rediscovered Mega, which Kvadrat has especially produced for this exhibition.

Mega is used for the Enzo Mari-inspired round daybeds and for the specially designed cushion sculpture decorating the museum’s vast stage.

The exhibition is curated in collaboration with The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation of New York.

Danh (pronounced Ya:n) Vo was born in Vietnam in 1975 and arrived in Denmark at the age of four. Hoping to reach the USA, Vo and his family had fled Vietnam on a boat, when they were picked up by a Maersk vessel in the Pacific Ocean and taken to Denmark.

Danh Vo is a graduate from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and the Städelschule in Frankfurt. He has received the international art award Hugo Boss Prize and has presented solo shows across the world. Recent examples include the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2018), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid (2015-16); Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2015) and Museo Jumex, Mexico City (2014-15). In 2015 he represented Denmark at the Venice Bienniale.

In May, Observer.com listed Vo as one of the artists who will change the world in 2018.

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Artist

Danh Vo Danh Vo