Exhibition “Materia Renata”: Rethinking waste through art
From July 5 to September 7, 2025, the Vincom Center for Contemporary Art (VCCA) presents “Materia Renata”, a solo project by artist Nguyễn Quốc Dân. Featuring over 50 large-scale sculptures and installations made from recycled materials, the exhibition offers a critical perspective on the relationship between humans, matter, and nature set against the backdrop of growing global concerns over environmental degradation and mass consumption.
Using discarded materials such as plastic bottles, electronic parts, old mannequins, fabric scraps, and industrial waste, Nguyễn Quốc Dân reconstructs and transforms them into artworks of diverse forms from paintings and sculptures to large-scale installations. Each piece is more than just a visual structure; it is the result of a process of listening to and sensing the material. Here, art begins with empathy for what has been deemed worthless.
Having worked with waste materials for many years, Nguyễn Quốc Dân once referred to his style as “Anti-Cubism”, a personal visual approach rooted in multicolored wires, unconventional geometry, and discarded industrial structures.
In this exhibition, however, these practices go beyond stylistic expression. They become an artistic statement: a reaffirmation of the value of forgotten materials and the potential for rebirth in a new form.
Artist Nguyễn Quốc Dân in his speech at the exhibition. Source: VCCA
According to the artist, each recycled material carries its own lifecycle and story. It is not merely a technical choice, but a way to open conversations around aesthetics, ecology, and existential themes in contemporary art.
As such, the exhibition forms a kind of visual ecosystem, a space where viewers encounter and engage with the ever-changing, paradoxical nature of matter: at once familiar and unfamiliar.
The artwork displayed at “Materia Renata”. Source: Internet
The exhibition unfolds through two interwoven streams of work. One centers on weathered plastic where fragments worn down by time, washed ashore or buried underground.
The other draws on waste from the fashion industry: fabric offcuts, chemical residue, and discarded dyeing materials. Reimagined by the artist, these materials come alive in diverse shapes, colors, and kinetic forms, offering a space that is both intuitive and contemplative.
Artwork at the exhibition. Source: Internet
Curator Đỗ Tường Linh reflects: “These works urge us to look again – not just to recognize what has been discarded, but to discover within it a life force of resistance – a heartbeat beneath the plastic.”
Through the lens of art, “Tái chất hoàn sinh – Vật chất tái sinh – Materia Renata” shares a hopeful message of regeneration. It is not only at the material level but also in ways of thinking, behaving, and perceiving. The exhibition becomes a space for reflection, inviting the public to contemplate and actively participate in change, starting from the smallest choices in everyday life.
Exhibition Information
Time: 10:00 – 21:00, from 05/07/2025 to 07/09/2025
Venue: Vincom Center for Contemporary Art (VCCA) B1-R3, Vincom Mega Mall Royal City, 72A Nguyễn Trãi, Thanh Xuân, Hanoi
Free Admission
Sources:
https://vccavietnam.com/trien-lam-tai-chat-hoan-sinh-vat-chat-tai-sinh-materia-renata