Thu-Van Tran, Pénétrable

The Pénétrable mural is a unique piece created on site by the artist. A special mixture of rubber and chemical pigments penetrates and covers the flawless surface of a formerly white museum wall like a second skin. The result is ghostly-looking traces and stains. Thu Van Tran, who lives in Paris, draws on the history of her native Vietnam. For all the beguiling beauty of the intensely colored murals, the artist tells a story of contamination, exploitation and colonialism: In order to meet the increased demand for latex rubber since the 1825s, French sailors imported the seeds of the invasive rubber tree Hevea brasiliensis to Indochina, where they were grafted onto native plants and multiplied explosively. The decline of native plants and the impoverishment of the soil due to monoculture were the result of this ruthless transformation of nature for economic reasons.

Thu-Van Tran received the Rosa Schapire Prize of the Friends of the Hamburger Kunsthalle in 2023. Her painting Colors of Grey (2023) was acquired by the Stiftung Hamburger Kunstsammlungen and, together with the wall installation Pénétrable, is part of the exhibition ISA MONA LISA.