The showcase featured nine large-scale oil paintings including portraits of young artists in Vietnam’s contemporary art scene and abstract works that reflect the transformation the artist experienced after returning to live in her homeland.

Breil-Dupont always proudly introduces her Vietnamese name, Bui Khue.

Born in Paris in 1990, she carries French, Catalan, and Vietnamese heritage.

Her Vietnamese grandmother, who has long been the person who linked her to Vietnam since childhood, played an important role in her debut exhibition in Ho Chi Minh City.

Breil-Dupont titled the exhibition 'Here, There and Everywhere,' with inspiration from a familiar saying from her grandmother who often told her that although she lived in France, her heart was also in Vietnam.

In an open conversation with Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper's correspondent, Breil-Dupont revisited childhood memories, shared her journey of transformation while reconnecting with her roots, and expressed the simple emotions she feels in Vietnam, as well as the special bond with her heritage.

The artist believes her artistic path cannot be separated from her diverse origins. Her father is French-Vietnamese and her mother is Catalan.

“My childhood was between bullfights and going to the temple with my other grandmother. It was interesting,” she said.

Those seemingly contrasting experiences laid the foundation for her aesthetic sensibilities.

“Coming from different cultures, I gather the symbols deeply rooted in my childhood memories and turn them into what I want to express," she said.

"At one point an artist must find their own language. 

"And when you are mixed, you create from everything that makes you who you are."

Breil-Dupont studied fine arts in France and philosophy in Brazil. 

She lived and exhibited in several countries including France, Germany, the U.S., Belgium, Romania, and Italy before returning to Ho Chi Minh City in 2023.

Two years later, she launched 'Here, There and Everywhere' capturing the inner shifts she underwent while living in Vietnam, a transformation that she said is very hard to put into words so she painted it.

A journey of self-rediscovery

Breil-Dupont’s most profound shift came from a process of unintentionally rediscovering herself in Vietnam physically and mentally.

Moving to a new country and a new continent always changes one’s way of seeing things. 

With the way she feels things so fully, these changes resonated deeply with her.

During her time in Vietnam, Breil-Dupont had a serious motorbike accident that left her with broken bones, a shifted shoulder, and severe physical injuries. 

The artist could not paint for months and had to undergo three surgeries.

She had to learn to live with her own body again, starting from basic daily tasks like brushing her teeth.

“I had to rediscover the aesthetics of my body, how this damaged body moves. The experience has left a physical imprint. I still carry pain in my body related to it,” she said.

At the same time she was dealing with depression.

With heartfelt openness she shared that she arrived in Vietnam at a time when her mental health was fragile. 

Years of overwork and back-to-back exhibitions in different countries had exhausted her. 

“I painted a lot but felt so far from what I was doing,” she recalled.

Her decision to return to Vietnam was rooted in a simple intuition: she wanted to be closer to her roots, her family, and herself.

Breil-Dupont did not intentionally come to Vietnam to heal but somehow this place helped her recover not just through therapy but through an invisible link that seemed to put things back into place.

For years her life had been a series of intuition-driven leaps: studying philosophy in Brazil, learning painting techniques in Italy, then moving to Berlin for exhibitions.

“It was always a big step but it always felt right,” she said.

Returning to Vietnam might be one of such steps.

“I think it was intuition. I am here because I feel I need to be here. Right place, right time, everything just aligns,” she said.

Breil-Dupont said that when she was depressed, her world shrank into a very narrow space inside her head.

The 'Here, There and Everywhere' exhibition’s poster – a vortex unfurling into a white flamboyant flower – is her metaphor for those two years.

It represents a journey from feeling trapped in a small place in her head to feeling open, able to breathe freely again, blossoming again, and reconnecting with friends, her roots, and herself.

When asked what she loves most after almost three years in Vietnam, she broke into a smile: “the rain.”

Not necessarily her favorite thing but something that gives her peace. She lives in a leafy neighborhood and the sound of rain outside her studio brings her peace of mind.

But what Breil-Dupont cherishes most is the people she has met.

“I love my friends here. I love waking up, going outside, hearing people chat, greeting neighbors,” she shared.

For her, the love for Vietnam comes from small things, the everyday habits that make her feel she belongs here. 

"These things make me feel at home,” she said.

From 'being linked' to being the link

Vietnam not only gives Breil-Dupont a sense of home, but also the chance to create a home that her family in France can return to.

She is the first in her family in France to move back to Vietnam. After seeing her life here, everyone now wants to visit.

She shared that her father now travels between France and Vietnam often and her grandmother returns to Vietnam for Tet (Lunar New Year) this year.

In her childhood, Breil-Dupont was always curious and constantly asking her grandmother questions about Vietnam.

In her multicultural family, that curiosity grew through stories her grandmother told during her visits, from the legend of the dragon and fairy, traditional Tet celebrations, pagoda visits, ancestral rituals, and family meals full of Vietnamese dishes.

For Breil-Dupont, her grandmother holds a special place in her life.

Despite exhibiting around the world and even being one of the three laureates for the Jean-François Prat Prize in 2021, the artist almost teared up when she recalled her grandmother saying she was proud of her, simply because she could speak Vietnamese.

“I have exhibited in many places so when my family heard I would exhibit in Vietnam, they were happy that it would be held at an important museum like the Ho Chi Minh City Museum, but they were not particularly emotional,” she recalled.

“But when my grandmother watched an interview and saw me answer in Vietnamese, she said she was proud of me.

“You know how Asian elders do not often say they are proud of us, but my grandmother was proud of me.”

It felt meaningful to her. Back then, her grandmother spoke Vietnamese only with other Vietnamese people, not with her own children, hoping they would integrate quickly and become perfect French citizens, not feeling ostracized.

Yet decades later, she is proud to hear her granddaughter speak her mother tongue.

When asked how long she plans to stay in Vietnam, Breil-Dupont said she cannot promise that she will stay forever, but for now she does not want to go anywhere.

“I have built a home here,” she said, adding that even if she moves away one day, Saigon will always be the place she can return to.

Her daily life in Saigon is quite simple. She makes coffee in the morning, goes to the gym then either returns to her studio or wanders around the city. In the evening she reads, meets friends, goes out for drinks, or a movie.

Breil-Dupont describes her life in Vietnam as “sweet.”

“I am very happy living here, and even very privileged to be able to live from my painting. I feel very blessed,” she said.