The Vietnamese artist Thao Nguyen Phan, who lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City, can’t forget her country’s turbulent past. Phan explores history through narratives both fictional and documentary, drawing her own conclusions. In an exhibition of multimedia works and video installations, the artist turns her gaze to the Mekong River, which rises from China’s Tibetan Plateau and traverses Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia before arriving in Vietnam. The river has been a site of industrial activity, as well as colonialism and little known humanitarian catastrophes. To stunning effect, Phan combines archival documents and oral accounts with silk paintings and video animation. This is is her first U.K. exhibition. —Elena Clavarino