“Kartoffel” (German for potato): what more prosaic thing than this lowly root vegetable could there be, whose name also happens to be a derogatory term used to describe Germans? German-Vietnamese artist Phung-Tien Phan (*1983) takes up the potato, in its casual-but-hearty ordinariness and its capacity to stand in for cultural identity as the thread running through her exhibition. Featuring all-new sculpture, video, and installation, Kartoffel, the artist’s first solo exhibition in Switzerland, reveals a practice that explores diasporic experience, female labor, and late capitalist modes of production in ways that are simultaneously tender, lo-fi, and humorous.
Phung-Tien Phan
Kartoffel
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Phung-Tien Phan, Bureau du Change, Campoli Presti, London, 2020. Exhibition view. Photo: Campoli Presti and the artist. Courtesy: Museum Folkwang
Phung-Tien Phan, Dino at Risk, 2021. Foto: Niklas Taleb. Courtesy the artist
Phung-Tien Phan, girl at heart 2 (s), 2021. Detail view. Photo: Schiefe Zaehne. Courtesy the artist
Phung-Tien Phan, Bankett Gruppe 0 (Single), 2016. Exhibition view. Photo: Bonner Kunstverein. Courtesy the artist