XEMX: 5 Friends 10 Years Art Infinite

ISBN: 978-981-18-8338-5
Published in 2023

XEM is a collective of five Vietnamese visual artists: Phan Quang, Nguyễn Thanh Trúc, Hoàng Dương Cầm, Quang Lâm, and Ưu Đàm Trần Nguyễn who started publishing an art magazine as friends, connecting with the public through their art. With their diverse backgrounds, XEM as a collective, showcased their work, according to their own expertise within a shared space, bringing what was in several editions of the magazine over the decade, to realising it as a seminal exhibition by group beyond the shores of Saigon.

Through a wide selection of videos, photo images, gaming sets, multimedia projections as well as found objection installation, and an inflatable sculpture, the exhibition XEMX reorientates us to converse without speaking directly, creating room to contemplate on the carousel of meanings that surround things; reflect on what we see, who we are and how we make sense of things as we encounter them in our visual field.

XEMX: 5 Friends 10 Years Art Infinite was conceptualised and presented in Singapore in September 2023 in conjunction with NAFA’s Southeast Asian Art Clinic, each celebrating its 10^th  anniversary of being.

The book features a key essay by the exhibition curator, Dr Bridget Tracy Tan, who sheds fresh insight into XEM's practice and its significance within the context of contemporary art in Southeast Asia,  as well as an interview of the artists by independent writer Dương Mạnh Hùng in Vietnamese (translation in English) and full-colour spreads of the exhibition presented in NAFA, Singapore.