HCM CITY – French-Catalan-Vietnamese artist Chloé Saï Breil-Dupont, known by her Vietnamese name Bùi Khuê, will open her first solo exhibition in HCM City on September 12, showcasing a powerful fusion of identity and culture.

The exhibition, titled Ở đây, ở đó và ở khắp mọi nơi (Here, There and Everywhere), features nine large-scale oil-on-canvas paintings. These include portraits of prominent figures from the Vietnamese contemporary art scene and more abstract pieces reflecting the profound transformations Breil-Dupont has experienced in body and mind since living in Việt Nam.

Through these works, she explores how each individual’s existence is shaped by encounters between heritage and environment, past and present, cultures and contexts.

The artists, creators and cultural actors depicted are not simply witnesses of their time, but figures who, through their work, weave deep connections between their personal stories and the society around them.

The oil portraits also serve as a mirror to Breil-Dupont’s own journey. Of Vietnamese descent through her grandmother, she grew up navigating two worlds — the West and Việt Nam. This duality deeply nourishes her art, where every brushstroke is an attempt to honour both cultures.

Some of the more abstract paintings delve into this inner exploration — expressing her relationship with origin, Vietnamese culture and the transformations sparked by her immersion.

Red is a dominant colour throughout the exhibition. For Breil-Dupont, it symbolises Vietnamese celebrations, luck and vitality, elements that have accompanied her since childhood and which are made to resonate visually here.

It also echoes the Red Thread of Fate, an invisible connection said to tie souls destined to meet. This idea mirrors the unseen bonds between heritage, people and stories that weave through the paintings, binding past and present, self and culture.

Through this exhibition, she aims to build bridges and offer an intimate vision of figures who, while being deeply rooted in their own histories, help shape the narrative of the contemporary art scene in HCM City.

Through their lives and through these portraits and abstract forms, viewers are invited to reflect on how the connections between past, self and culture can be expressed through art and how these often subtle links shape our lives and our creations.

Chloé Saï Breil-Dupont, born in Paris in 1990, studied at the Beaux-Arts schools in Biarritz and Annecy, completing her degree in 2015. Soon after, she relocated to São Paulo, where she pursued Philosophy at PUC University.

Breil-Dupont went on to complete six residencies, including at Les Ateliers Wonder, La Villa Belleville, Ateliergemeinschaft Milchhof and La Villa Saigon. She has also exhibited in numerous museums, galleries and international fairs.

 

 In 2017, she created and self-published Le Livre O, a graphic novel that evokes parallel universes and worlds that exist on top of each other. The text was distributed by le Centre Pompidou and le Palais de Tokyo, among other institutions.

In 2021, she was selected as one of three recipients of the prestigious Jean-François Prat prize.

Breil-Dupont currently lives and works in HCM City.

The exhibition is part of the “Villa Saigon” artist residency programme, organised by the French Institute in Việt Nam, which aims at creating a bridge between contemporary French creations and the Vietnamese cultural context. Each year, the programme welcomes French artists who come to develop their creative projects in collaboration with local cultural partners.

The event will open to the public from September 12 to October 3 at the Museum of HCM City at 65 Lý Tự Trọng Street, Sài Gòn Ward. — VNS