Traveling with guerrilla units in the 1960s–70s to document the front line of the Vietnamese resistance in the Cà Mau region, Võ An Khánh (1936–2023, Vietnam) was tasked with upholding the vision of collective socialist struggle, yet his images often dwell on unexpected moments of stillness, distinctly blurring the boundaries between art and militancy, documentary and spectacle.
Drawing from the work of scholars such as Sylvia Shin Huey Chong and artists like Dinh Q. Lê, the presentation of Éléonore Tran investigates the merging of fictional and documentary imagery and its impact on cultural memory. She offers a critical reflection on the images produced in and about Vietnam during the American War (1955–1975). In contrast, Võ An Khánh’s rarely exhibited black-and-white photographs — reveal the everyday realities of those who lived, resisted, and survived in the mangrove forests of Vietnam.