“The history of the world is also the history of wars. I was born into one. I have lived through many...” — Trần Trọng Vũ
To mark the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, A2Z Art Gallery is proud to present Cette musique ne s'arrête pas (This Music Doesn’t Stop), a solo exhibition by Vietnamese artist Trần Trọng Vũ. Through a series of previously unseen paintings, the artist invites us into a visual universe where memory, illusion, and political commitment intertwine.
Born in Hanoi during the war, Trần Trọng Vũ grew up in a world saturated with propaganda, heroic narratives, and official imagery. Having lived in France for over 30 years, he now casts a critical eye on this imposed memory while confronting the modern forms of conflict—political, economic, and media-driven. His painting becomes a site of resistance—against forgetting, against deception, and against aesthetic superficiality.
A major figure in contemporary Vietnamese art, Trần Trọng Vũ was awarded the First Prize at the Austria Biennale in 2006 and received the prestigious Pollock-Krasner Grant in New York for the 2011–2012 season—an exceptional recognition that highlights the power and uniqueness of his work.
In Cette musique ne s'arrête pas, the artist juxtaposes two worlds: the raw, silent one of trauma, and the colorful, seductive one of representation. His works captivate with their formal beauty while subtly revealing the ambiguity of a veiled reality. Painting becomes a deceptive surface—a delicate camouflage where truth and falsehood, visibility and concealment, coexist.
This exhibition also reflects on the role of images in contemporary society. In a world overwhelmed by screens and information, what remains of truth? As Kipling once wrote, “The first casualty of war is truth.” Trần Trọng Vũ echoes this sentiment, transforming art into a critical space—a poetic battlefield where memory resists erasure.
Cette musique ne s'arrête pas is an invitation to look beyond appearances, to listen to history’s silences, and to remain attentive to what images choose not to show.