The exhibition CA DAO. Echi sussurri sentieri congiunti (Echoes Whispers Conjoined Paths) is a visual transposition of the delicacy and elegance, tenacity and expressive power of Linh Bubbio. Her artistic research merges with her soul, her roots, her ancestors. Beginning a journey of discovery to a distant land, she found the other half of herself.

This dualism characterizes her personality as much as her production. The Sapa composition stands out in the center of the room with all its totemic and spiritual power. The work was actually born out of a violent gesture. The original canvas, Alexetimia, represented a natural landscape full of small elements that could be discerned among the red soil of Vietnam. As well as the smaller works placed on the wall, the work had been painted at the same time as the outbreak of war in Ukraine, in an attempt not to forget the atrocities also inflicted on the Vietnamese people. Nevertheless, Alexetimia communicated a state of acceptance and overcoming, almost of stillness and newfound peace. The impetuous act of disfigurement comes later, upon the artist’s return from one of her travels to her homeland. Today the country is moving toward globalization and economic growth at the expense of a thousand-year-old tradition, a culture that has existed since time immemorial. And so the artist, with impetus but also with extreme sensitivity, tears and mends, separates and stitches together. She begins to narrate the flavor of this land, its fragrance, the musicality of its language and the uniqueness of its colors.

In particular, through the Ca Dao, folk ballads passed down orally, Linh Bubbio brings to light a lost idiom. Trapped among the knots that make up the installation, colored cards and poetic transcriptions in different alphabets can be glimpsed. It is in this forest of interwoven threads that poetry resonates like a whisper from the past, an echo that becomes a metaphor for memory.

Erica Massaccesi

Linh Bubbio was born in Vietnam in 1998 and came to Italy through adoption in 2000. After graduating from the Aldo Passoni Artistic High School with a focus on fashion and costume history, she took a three-year degree in Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. In 2020, together with eight other fellow students, she returned to Turin where she founded the art collective Spazio Buho and enrolled in the two-year course in Painting at the Accademia Albertina. Language, a multiple expression capable of overcoming linguistic and social barriers, has always been a central element within her artistic research, as well as references to her homeland. Frequent are the artist’s travels to Vietnam.

In recent years she has exhibited in several group shows; in 2021 she participates in the RigenerArti project, a collaboration between the Reggia di Venaria and the Accademia Albertina, at the same time she inaugurates two exhibitions with Spazio Buho (Crocevia and Cosa rimane, 2021). In 2023 she completed her specialized studies, exhibiting the installation ConTatto on the second floor of the Rotunda building of the Accademia Albertina, and participated in the fourth edition of Rea Art Fair 2023 at Fabbrica del Vapore in Milan. She is currently pursuing the Preparo il mio Zainetto (I prepare my backpack) project with the Paideia Foundation in Turin.

Erica Massaccesi born in the middle of Italy, lives and works in Milan. Graduated in Science of Cultural Heritage at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, in 2018 she began a collaboration with Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto (Biella), where she had the opportunity to work alongside the artist Nico Angiuli in the realization of his work The Human Tools, winner of the third edition of Italian Council. She assisted the artist Reverie in the performance Sogno 1: Archetipo del sè (Dream 1: Archetype of the self) at the VOLUME! Foundation in Rome. After specializing in Art Markets at IULM University in Milan, she became part of the curatorial team of the cultural association Rea Arte, managing its fair dedicated to emerging artists at Fabbrica del Vapore. Since September 2022 she has been in charge of communication and press office for Assab One, also participating as assistant editor in the publication of the book Assab One 2002 – 2022.

Mafalda Galessi is an artist and curator. She graduated with honors in NABA – Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, in Painting and Visual Arts and in the master’s degree in Visual Arts and Curatorial Studies. Among the many group exhibitions in which she takes part are The Great Learning curated by Marco Scotini at the Triennale Milano, Kuhn’s Paradigm curated by Ettore Favini, Esther Biancotti and Jacopo Figura at Fuori Campo Gallery, Nunc est bibendum, nunc pede libero pulsanda second edition of BienNolo curated by Gianni Romano, Rossana Ciocca and Matteo Bergamini and her first solo show CH12O22H11 at Spazio Volta (BG), curated by Edoardo Decobelli. In 2022 Lucia Pescador invites her to present a sound performance entitled Organelli at the conclusion of her solo show Geometrie per Sonia Delaunay e Joseph Beuys at Assab One. In 2023 she holds, on invitation of Massimo Bartolini, the Supernovae party workshop for the two-year Sculpture class at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna. Since May 2020 she has been working as Production Manager for Assab One in charge of graphics, logistics and set-ups of the exhibitions.