“Across the curve of the earth, there are women getting up before dawn, in the blackness before the point of light, in the twilight before sunrise; there are women rising earlier than men and children to break the ice, to start the stove, to put up the pap, the coffee, the rice, to iron the pants, to boil water for tea, to wash the children for school, to pull the vegetables and start the walk to market, to run to catch the bus for the work that is paid. I don’t know when most women sleep. In big cities at dawn women are traveling home after cleaning offices all night, or waxing the halls of hospitals, or sitting up with the old and sick and frightened at the hour when death is supposed to do its work.

In minimal light I see her, over and over, her inner clock pushing her out of bed with her heavy and maybe painful limbs, her breath breathing life into her stove, her house, her family, taking the last cold swatch of night on her body, meeting the sudden leap of the rising sun.

…They have tried to tell me that this woman – politicized by intersecting forces – doesn’t think and reflect on her life. That her ideas are not real ideas like those of Karl Marx and Simone de Beauvoir. That her calculations, her spiritual philosophy, her gifts for law and ethics, her daily emergency political decisions are merely instinctual or conditioned reactions. That only certain kinds of people can make theory…”
—Adrienne Rich, Notes Towards a Politics of Location (1984)

Womb of Fire – Dạ Lửa arises from this terrain of quiet persistence. In Vietnamese, the words lửa (fire) and máu (blood) flow as inseparable currents. Lửa is the hearth—bếp lửa—around which stories, songs, and sustenance gather, as it is the passion and vitality of those who share it. Máu is the blood—dòng máu—of generations whose sacrifice and resilience courses through one's veins. Yet, in Vietnamese, máu also carries the pulse of intensity, a fiery determination, a spirit that is bold, unrestrained, and alive. Placed together, lửa and máu name a force both intimate and collective, tender yet unyielding: the fire and lifeblood of women’s creativity, struggle, and endurance.

Womb of Fire – Dạ Lửa is a living archive of these energies; a space where the invisible labor, the bodily wisdom, and the fiery inventiveness of Vietnamese women are concentrated and celebrated. Here, the small becomes immense, the quiet becomes radiant, and the sparks of individual voices merge into a shared blaze that continues to illuminate the present and future of art.

The year 2025 marks the centennial of the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de l'Indochine. While official histories may commemorate its founding with grand acts, Womb of Fire – Dạ Lửa positions itself differently: as an independent educational endeavor, a counter-archive that centers women’s voices and experiences. It asks what histories smolder in the margins, what fires continue to burn quietly even when unrecognized, what lessons lie in the small, the intimate, the overlooked.

We also wish to honor the many luminous women whose works do not appear here, whether due to time, space, or circumstance. Their absence is not a void but another kind of fire, simmering with energy beyond the reach of this project. It is important to acknowledge that there are by no means only one hundred Vietnamese female artists, nor does this gathering imply a fixed criterion of who may be counted as such. Rather, it is a gesture toward the boundless scope of women’s creativity, which cannot and should not be contained within a formal canon.

Womb of Fire – Dạ Lửa was conceived by Đỗ Tường Linh, Nguyễn Vũ Thiên An, and Carmen Cortizas Fontan. It is offered as a humble tribute, an admiring acknowledgment, and an expression of gratitude towards the persistence, care, and radiant energy of women artists across Vietnam and the diaspora.

Mo Art Space (Hà Nội), in collaboration with Vin Gallery and Gallery Medium (Hồ Chí Minh City), is pleased to present the exhibition “Dạ Lửa – Womb of Fire”, featuring 100 works by Vietnamese and diasporic Vietnamese women artists. Initiated by curator Đỗ Tường Linh, with the support of Nguyễn Vũ Thiên An and Carmen Cortizas Fontan, the project focuses on researching, archiving, and presenting diverse artistic practices. Opening in Hà Nội before traveling to Hồ Chí Minh City, the exhibition offers audiences in both cities the opportunity to encounter and engage with a rich constellation of creativity.

‘Womb of Fire’ exhibition titles were created with ‘Danh Da Bold’ typeface & font by Republish Project, designed by Giang Nguyen in collaboration with Huong Ngo. Key Visual by Chi L. Nguyen & Graphic Design by 609 Studio.

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