Storytelling

In Phuc Van Dang's work, stories are often told in single, unbroken lines, and the line becomes a narrative in itself. Phuc Van Dang never makes corrections; once a line is made, it stays there, and just as in life, each step leads to the next. Even if a mistake is made, it is turned into something positive and included into the whole. He creates his murals without sketches and sees the organically growing and self-forming compositions as an integral part of the creation process; his paintings develop as living organisms, taking on new forms throughout the work process without a predetermined outcome in mind. A story expressed in visual images draws on its own semiotic 'grammar', and visual storytelling provides a much richer symbolic palette than written text alone.

In Phuc Van Dang's universe, understanding the foundation, the DNA itself, is a key element in storytelling, and knowing our background, our own history and our culture is of great importance. According to him, people create culture, not the other way around, and we should know and understand our own culture, but always have the freedom to examine it, reconsider it and in that way transform it. By the means of storytelling, Phuc Van Dang puts the human in the center of narratives that reflect on themes like personal stories, social issues and movements shaping our culture today.