Danh Vo

Danh Vo is a Vietnamese-Danish conceptual artist who examines identity, migration, and history through personal objects and documents. His family fled Vietnam in 1979 and was granted asylum in Denmark, a pivotal experience in his work. In Oma Totem (2009) and Das Beste oder Nichts (2010), Vo reflects on migration’s impact on family identity using objects rich in symbolism. In Vo Rosasco Rasmussen (2002– ), he challenges the idea of legal identity by marrying and divorcing quickly, collecting surnames as fragments of personal history. 2.2.1861 (2009– ) explores authorship through a letter manually transcribed by his father, who does not know the language, making it a purely visual exercise. He has exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts, Kunsthalle Basel, and the Guggenheim, where he presented Take My Breath Away (2018). His work has been featured in the Venice Biennale, Berlin Biennale, and Whitney Biennial. Winner of the Hugo Boss Prize (2012), he lives and works in Berlin and Mexico City.