CHART Talks Podcast: Minh Ngọc Nguyễn & Anna Mustonen

Examining South-East Asian stereotypes through still-life photography

Listen back to a conversation between Minh Ngọc Nguyễn and Anna Mustonen recorded live as part of the Talks Programme at CHART 2025.

For the eleventh episode of the third season of the CHART Talks podcast, we are happy to share a recording of a conversation between the Danish/Vietnamese artist Minh Ngọc Nguyễn and Anna Mustonen, Chief Curator at Kiasma in Finland - which currently holds four of Nguyễn’s works in its collection. Together they explore Nguyễn’s artistic practice, which began in commercial photography before moving into contemporary art.

Nguyễn reflected on his fascination with photography’s ability to shape how we perceive culture and identity. The conversation addresses representations of Southeast Asian and Vietnamese identity in Western media, where imagery has often been oversimplified, exoticised, or fetishised, shaping both public perception and lived experience. He speaks about using photography to process and challenge these visual histories, taking ownership of such imagery and redefining it on his own terms as part of building a new visual lexicon.

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