That ammunitions once designed to carry destruction transform years later into hovering bells of healing might seem like an impossible alchemy. In his first solo exhibition titled “Fire Sermon” at Esther Schipper gallery in Berlin, Tuan Andrew Nguyen converts unexploded ammunitions left over from the Vietnam War into kinetic sculptures, purifying the traumatic memory carried by the material through its sound. On view between September 11 and October 24, 2026, the selection consists of five new mobile sculptures the artist constructed from these war remains.
Resembling Alexander Calder’s modernist kinetic sculptures at first glance, these works create the feeling of a graceful playground with their balanced, colorful abstract forms. However, the 57mm converted brass shell casings suspended at the center—as in the work Parrot’s Beak / Mỏ Két—instantly shatter this lightness, dragging the viewer into a historical confrontation. While nodding to Calder’s formal language, Nguyen simultaneously places a caveat on modernism’s illusion of political neutrality; for Calder, who was identified with the Cold War era, was in reality a figure who resolutely opposed the Vietnam War and refused the US Presidential Medal of Freedom.
The conceptual roots of the works stem from Nguyen’s 2022 film The Unburied Sounds of a Troubled Horizon. The passion of the young metal scavenger in the film to craft healing bells from bomb scrap merges with the tradition of the Vietnamese people converting ammunitions remaining hidden in their land into everyday objects. The artist does not leave these brass casings merely as visual objects; by tuning each to specific frequencies believed to be healing (for instance E5, 647.27 Hz), he builds an audible ritual echoing throughout the space.
The exhibition takes its title from the Buddhist text Ādittapariyāya Sutta (The Fire Sermon), which defines sensory experiences as states “burning” with passion, anger, and pain. Neutralizing the explosive destruction of the past with the healing vibrations of sound, Nguyen reminds the viewer that purification from trauma and liberation come through non-attachment.
Exhibition Note from NO-26 Editor
Artist: Tuan Andrew Nguyen
Exhibition: Fire Sermon
Venue: Esther Schipper (Berlin, Germany)
Dates: September 11 – October 24, 2026 (Opening: Thursday, September 10, 18:00 – 22:00)
Aura: A striking Berlin exhibition bringing together artillery shell casings left over from the Vietnam War with Alexander Calder forms and bells tuned to healing frequencies; transforming objects of destruction through memory, sound, and Buddhist philosophy.
