Danh Vo

Danh Vo was born in Bà Rịa, Vietnam, in 1975. His family fled the trauma of postwar Vietnam in 1979 on a handmade boat: though intended for the United States, their vessel was rescued by a Danish shipping freighter, and they were brought to Denmark where they were granted political asylum and citizenship.

Vo is a graduate of the Kongelige Danske Kunstakademie, Copenhagen (1998–2002), and the Städelschule, Frankfurt (2002–05). His practice, existing at the intersection of autobiography and collective history, explores the signification found within archival traces as well as the malleable nature of personal identity. With references to migration and integration, Vo’s largely conceptual body of work destabilizes the embedded structures of legitimacy within citizenship and identification.

Photo: Martha Reta.