RE/COVER

RE/COVER

With Re/cover, Phan Quang erects photographic truth as both a sensitive experience and a critical, collective issue. He probes the conditions that enable or prevent the formulation of truth.

His practice lies on the hazy thin line between documentary and staged photography: the image ceases to serve as a proof and becomes an active space for reconfiguring reality, made legible through deliberate narrative choices and a redefinition of power relationships.  Each photograph depicts a subject in their domestic space, enveloped in a traditional white wedding veil. The latter thus becomes a complex symbol, evoking both the thwarted union and the absent father, while also serving as a protective screen between the gaze and vulnerable intimacy. It is both a shroud of the past and a gesture of modesty. Through this deliberately sculptural mise-en-scène, Phan gives a visibility to the silent persistence of these stories. The image becomes a place of a negotiation between revelation and dissimulation, between individual memory and national narrative.

The truth he conveys is situated, sensitive and deeply political; a micro-history that is essential for confronting the great dominant narratives and expresses itself as much in what is shown as in what is veiled. Thus, Re/cover remains, a decade after its creation, a compelling reflection on photography's ability to organise the meaning of the world, far beyond its mere claim to record it.

____________________

Sekula, A (2013) The Body and the Archive. Écrits sur la photographie 1974-1986, Paris: Beaux-Arts de Paris.

ARTIST: Phan Quang

PRESENTED BY GALERIE BAO, PARIS, FRANCE

Born 1976 in Bình Định, Việt Nam.

Lives and works between Hồ Chí Minh City and Đà Lạt, Việt Nam.

Phan Quang explores tensions between truth, memory and image through subtle compositions combining historical narratives and personal stories in Việt Nam. With quiet elegance, his work spans photography, video, performance and installation. He worked as a photojournalist for over ten years. His work has been shown at MOCA Geffen, Kadist, Asia Society, Fukuoka Art Museum, BACC, Dak'Art and Singapore Art Museum, among others.

CURATOR: Nadine Hounkpatin

Born 1975 in Bohicon, Benin.

Lives and works between Europe, Africa and within the African diaspora.

Nadine Hounkpatin is an arts and cultural consultant and curator. Her practice takes a critical, transcultural approach to how artists revisit memory and historical narratives, opening up new aesthetic and political possibilities. She co-founded the platform TheArtMomentum and curated the traveling exhibition Memoria: récits d'une autre Histoire. She works to increase the visibility of Black artists, while creating spaces to reflect on questions of transmission, representation and dominant narratives. Curator of the Prix Découverte at the 2026 Rencontres d'Arles, her work engages with political questions and focuses on new forms of visual expression and emerging contemporary art.