Arts Collaboratory

San Art is an independent, non-profit, artist-initiated gallery space and reading room in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Established in October 2007, San Art (‘san’ meaning ‘platform’) aims to promote, facilitate and showcase knowledge production through contemporary art, via exhibition and education. It is the only contemporary art organization in Vietnam with a dedicated forward program encompassing solo and group exhibitions by local and regional Vietnamese artists; exhibitions by select international artists; an educational program inviting international and local creatives to speak of their practice and research (held in conjunction with local educational organizations, with support from the Vietnam Foundation for the Arts (VNFA); and a growing library of reading material from across the world on the development of contemporary art.

San Art was initiated in response to a great lack of resources regarding contemporary art and culture in Vietnam. In this country, there are very few visual or textual resources post-1975 in university or public libraries (due to government restriction). This has also affected the art education curriculum here that is modeled on the French École des Beaux-Arts system (established in Hanoi in 1924 during the French occupation of Indochine) which focuses on the technical application of the plastic arts (sculpture, drawing, painting, lacquer, silk screen and printmaking). There has been little innovation in this method of teaching which means the comparative discussion of postmodernism, conceptual art, the condition of post-coloniality and much more is not discussed.

Sàn Art recognizes the value of space (physically and mentally) in the generation of critically creative ideas, where access to thinkers and makers is essential for new paradigms of culture to give birth. San Art's programs are driven by the ideas behind artistic practice today and where possible, these projects are taken abroad to relevant organizations.