June 2009. It has been two months since Hom Nguyen lost his mother. He needs to find himself again, re-charge his batteries. He goes to Vietnam for a month. He arrives in Hanoi where he only stays a few days. This old city of 1000 years, charged with history with its tree-lined streets, its gardens, and its little Parisian touch, unleashes an energy, an atmosphere, which is too unbridled for his taste.
He needs to capture other sensations. He rents a motorcycle and starts his journey. Hom has no specific destination, he just wants to be on the move, live from day to day, let himself be carried away by the people he meets… One day, after riding his motorcycle for over 10 hours, he takes a main road, then a smaller one, and notices an old dilapidated sign that points to a possible shortcut, and takes it.
Unfortunately, it quickly turns into a rocky track with steep rough slopes. Hom observes and assesses the possibilities and shortcomings for the motorcycle. The shock absorber in the front hits the potholes, the bike takes a first jump, the brakes begin to fail him… It all works out, but what a dizzying experience, he loves it! The only thing is, he is in the middle of nowhere.
It is 7 pm, just when the sun sets at this time of the year. He turns the headlights on, which, of course, only light the stars.Luckily, it is a full moon, the sky is clear, and he ends up in the village of Bao Lac.
This little hamlet in the extreme northeast of Vietnam, on the edge of the northern province of Cao Bang along the Chinese border, looks like the end of the world. Hom stays there for a few days, with a Black Lolo family. The mountainous regions of Bao Lac are home to many ethnic minorities.
Originally from Yunnan in China, the Black Lolos followed the southward migratory movements in the 15th and 18th centuries to settle in the landlocked mountains of the Upper Tonkin. Hom feels at home, he loves the energies that emanate from the mountains.
The Black Lolos believe in spirits and genies. The village chief, the keeper of the sacred copper drums who used to communicate between the living and the dead, invites Hom to a celebration of ancestral rituals. This is a magical moment for Hom, where time is suspended in flight. He is shaken by this experience, which appeases and soothes him at the same time.

Hom Nguyen’s work challenges us, projects us into an imaginary museum where past and present coexist, in a synergy that combines the force of tradition with the vigor of the modern world. The mystical and compassionate energy, present both in his heart and his work, urges the artist to travel the roads of Asia.
The artist’s work is a matter of existential commitment. It keeps a record of the ordeals experienced. It tells the truth, revealing it more extensively, and with deeper intensity. Hom Nguyen’s art merges the visible with the invisible, intimate whims with fleeting dreams.In perpetual movement, incessantly renewing themselves, constantly experimenting with different mediums, Hom Nguyen’s lines give form to, and simultaneously disfigure, the image emerging from a magma of overlapping tangles and spider-like superimpositions. Between imprint and dissolution, temporary and eternal, Hom Nguyen’s style is particularly sensitive to the human values he embodies and conveys: a sentiment of appeasement, respect, and communion. Values which for him are the foundation of all art, like a path that links one human being to another, and all of us to each other.

www.hom-nguyen.com