Mekong Cultural Hub

Bio: Lê Thiên Bảo is an art curator based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Since 2010, she has been developing her own artistic approach and successfully built her cross-generational network in the diverse arts communities across Vietnam. Having graduated with an Economics and Management degree from Toulouse 1 Capitole University, Bảo understands the importance of both experimental practice and market in a healthy ecosystem. At The Factory Contemporary Arts Centre, from April 2016 – Mar 2019, she developed her curatorial practices with various exhibitions and educational programs to raise necessary discussions of morals, values, ethics and responsibility through the arts; contributed to Vietnam modern and contemporary art researches while starting her own study on Southeast Asian art market. Despite the lack of infrastructure, censorship issues and broken education system in Vietnam, she aims to develop a sustainable local art community based on transparent art market, professional collection/investment and cross-disciplinary collaborations. Since 2019, she is the Regional Representative of Mekong Cultural Hub, an organization which offers personal and professional development opportunities for creative cultural practitioners in Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar and Thailand. Some of her selected curatorial projects include: curator of ‘The Prolonged Interventions’ (2016) – an socially engaged project by Lê Phi Long, The Factory, HCMC; co-curator/writer of ‘I, Me, Mine’ (2017) with Saigon Artbook 7, inpages & The Factory, HCMC; co-curator of ‘Spirit of Friendship’ – a group exhibition and on-going art history research about artists’ collectives in Vietnam since 1975, The Factory, HCMC; curator of ‘Dew drips, Smog seeps’ (2019) - a solo exhibition by Nguyễn Thúy Hằng, Vin Gallery, HCMC. In 2019, Bảo founded Symbioses project to create a reciprocal relationship between art and business, breeding the habit of enjoying, appreciating and collecting art in Vietnam. Symbioses is co-organizer of “Nổ Cái Bùm” – a Contemporary Art Week in Huế, July 2020. Le Thien Bảo is a French Excellence scholar to study MBA in Art Market Management (2020-2021) at L'École des Arts et de la Culture Paris, France.