"miền trung dung / precious forest" Exhibition

   A place described by the people who actually live in it: six contemporary artists sitting alongside four Cơ Tu master craftsmen, with one question between them — how fast is Đà Nẵng changing, from the western ridges down to the coast. You watch that conversation at the other end of the country, inside a private collection in District 2.

   The show is read through “trung dung”, an idea from Confucian thought: “trung” (中) is balance, the refusal to tip toward either extreme; “dung” (庸) is constancy, the ability to hold that balance steady over time. It is not neutrality and not conflict-avoidance — it is the work of staying upright between forces that keep colliding: development and preservation, the city and the forest, tourism and local life.

   Who takes part
— Artists: Trần Tuấn, Ly Hoàng Ly, Phạm Bá Lĩnh, Nguyễn Ngọc Hải, Đoàn Hồng Lê, Nguyễn Đình Phương
— Cơ Tu artisans: Alăng Blêu, Bh’ríu Pố, Bh’ríu Toàn, Ating Nga
— A series of sketches from the Dogma collection
— Curator: Xuân-Hạ (A Sông), in collaboration with Toom Sara Đà Nẵng

   If you follow contemporary art that engages with ecology, or you want to understand what is happening in Đà Nẵng beyond the tourist photographs, this is where to look closely. The Cơ Tu live in the western mountains of the region; every village keeps a Gươl, the communal house where the village meets, along with the crafts of brocade weaving and wood carving. Here they are not the subject on display — they are co-authors.

   Dogma is a private collection founded by Dominic Scriven, focused on 1945–1985: more than 1,000 propaganda paintings, plus archives of documentary photography and philately. A Sông is an artist collective in Đà Nẵng started by Xuân Hạ, which has spent years working with Cơ Tu communities and with the acacia plantations spreading across the hills west of the city.

   The line between keeping and changing is never somewhere far away — it sits inside ordinary daily decisions. Where would you draw yours?

   Opening hours: Thursday–Sunday, 11:00–18:00.