MIDDELBURG.- Tuấn Andrew Nguyễn transforms 57mm artillery casings, salvaged from the fields of Quảng Trị, Vietnam, into sculptures that suspend histories of war in states of balance and flow.

The work echoes the kinetic sculpture of American artist Alexander Calder, who spoke out against the Vietnam War when doing so was deeply controversial. This connection unfolds further in Nguyễn’s fiction film, The Unburied Sounds of a Troubled Horizon.

War also reverberates through Vleeshal itself. Vleeshal and Middelburg’s Stadhuis were heavily bombed during the Second World War. An etched commemorative grenade recalling this history is presented alongside ornamental grenades from across Zeeland, gathered through an open call.

At the exhibition’s center, Nguyễn’s sculpture is tuned to 685 Hz—a frequency associated with Buddhist traditions and now explored in treatment of post-traumatic disorders. From violence, another possibility emerges: resonance.

The exhibition is accompanied by Diam! – What Silence Carries, a sound research project by multidisciplinary artist Tjaka Tomas, presented with Stichting Mae-Uku and supported by AIRZeeland.

Tuấn Andrew Nguyễn

Tuấn Andrew Nguyễn is one of the most recognized artists of his generation, renowned for his explorations of the poetics of memory, and its potential to act as a form of social and spiritual resistance. Nguyễn was born in 1976, Saigon, Vietnam and lives and works in New York and Ho Chi Minh City.

In 1979, he and his family emigrated as war refugees to Texas in the United States. Today his practice is fuelled by research and a commitment to communities that continue to maintain cultural richness in the face of traumas caused by colonialism, war and displacement.

Currently, as part of the High Line commission in New York, Nguyễn presents the 8-meter sandstone sculpture The Light That Shines Through the Universe, a monument in homage to the Buddhas of Bamiyan, which were destroyed in 2001 by the Taliban. In this exhibition, Vleeshal proudly presents works from Nguyễn’s UXO series that has fuelled his practice over the past five years.





Ornamental Grenade Shells from Zeeland

Zeeland too was heavily bombed during the Second World War and in 1940 Vleeshal and the Middelburg Stadhuis were almost completely destroyed. This event and the later liberation of Walcheren are commemorated in a meticulously engraved brass grenade shell that is today held in the Stadhuis Collection and under the care of the Zeeuwse Archief.

The grenade features the facade of the Middelburg Stadhuis and was produced in 1939 at the factory Edward Curran Engineering Co. in Cardiff in Wales. It is thought that the grenade was created as a gift to the city of Middelburg by British soldiers who had fought in the liberation in 1944.

Following an open call, the exhibition is also accompanied by ornamental grenades from across Zeeland. These objects carry personal and local histories, showing how the remnants of war became part of everyday life and were passed down through families.

Next to a selection of grenade shells on display were kindly loaned by Marijke Birza, Loek de Cooker, Hans van Drongelen, Johan den Hollander, Frans Haak, Jaap Kamerling, Bob Nieuwenhuizen and Han Vermeule; as well as from the Bevrijdingsmuseum in Nieuwdorp.