Winners of photo contest on Hanoi named

Nguyen Nhu Hao has won the first prize for the ‘Feelings about Hanoi’ photography contest for the picture ‘Em Yeu Hoa Binh’ (I Love Peace).

The 2011 annual photography contest, the 41st of its kind, was held by the Hanoi Association of Artistic Photography to commemorate the anniversary of the capital’s Liberation Day (October 10).

Two second prizes went to ‘Ngay Hoi’ (A Festive Day) by Lai Dien Dam and ‘Ba Chau’ (Grandmother and Grandchild) by Nguyen Xuan Chinh.

The organising board also announced three third and ten consolation prizes for other photos at a press conference on September 15.

This year’s competition attracted over 1,000 entries from 217 artists in 17 provinces and cities across the country, and one Japanese artist. The entries reflected the cultural traditions and identity of elegant Hanoi, as well as the traditional craft villages and the lives of Hanoians today.

HCMC Conservatory of Music celebrates 55th anniversary  

The Ho Chi Minh City Conservatory of Music will celebrate its 55th anniversary with a special concert on September 30.  

Many generations of artists who have made outstanding contributions in developing the municipal music institute will take part in the event, such as Professor Ngo Thanh, Meritorious Artists Tran Vuong Thach and Hoang Diep.

Many activities will mark the celebrations that will be held from now until December, including classical music concerts, the first International Piano Festival from October 18-23 and the 1st International Guitar Gala from December 16-17.

Founded in 1956, the conservatory was earlier called “Saigon National Music and Drama School” that covered three main fields: Vietnamese traditional music, European music and Vietnamese traditional dramatics.

The school was renamed Ho Chi Minh City National Music School in 1975 and later as the Ho Chi Minh City Conservatory of Music in 1981.

It is one of the three conservatories in Vietnam besides the Hanoi Conservatory of Music and the Hue Conservatory.

The school provides faculty for teaching of theory and music composition as well as conducting; Vietnamese Traditional Musical Instruments; piano; string instruments; clarinet and percussion; vocal singing and techniques of music.

The conservatory has been granted titles of First, Second and Third Class Labor Medals and the third-class Independence Medal.

Artist Pham Huy Hung exhibits inspire the human mind and soul  

Artist Pham Huy Hung is fulfilling a long cherished dream of holding his second painting exhibition in the Museum of Fine Arts in Ho Chi Minh City, after a successful exhibition at the Viet Art Center in Hanoi.  

The present exhibition will feature 52 lacquer works and oils on canvas.

Born in the north central province of Thanh Hoa, he graduated from the Vietnam University of Fine Arts in 1999. He chose to pursue a style of painting that is inspired by his feelings and views on life. By experimenting with various kinds of mediums such as silk, lacquer, oil on canvas, Hung has found his own niche.

All paintings in this exhibition illustrate either his emotions or his beliefs. In some pictures entitled ‘Stormy Rain’, ‘Countryside Land’, ‘Heaven, Earth and Man’, viewers can identify the struggle of humans against disaster, as well as his philosophic ideas on the impact of mankind on nature.

In other paintings like ‘The Seat’, ‘Self Portrait’, viewers can catch his criticisms of social climbers, ill treatment of people and even a hint of sarcasm aimed at himself.

However, his most popular topic is, like many other artists, love and beauty. It could be as simple as a cloud in the sky like the series ‘Cloud I, II, III, IV, V’ or as sophisticated as feminine exquisiteness in his lacquer works. Beauty is also illustrated through his oils on canvas of normal everyday life.

There are paintings on philosophic ideas such as the series ‘Four Goddesses of Cloud, Rain, Thunder and Lightening’, ‘Trends of Operation I, II, III, IV, V’, in which Hung has excellently applied both the traditional lacquer art technique and national symbolic patterns found in Ngoc Lu drums that describe Vietnamese belief in the Higher Power or the everlasting movement of time through 12 traditional Zodiac Animals displayed along side modern clocks.

Explaining his reasons for choosing traditional themes, especially symbols found on bronze drums as base of his works, Hung shared that he had discovered in the traditional fine arts a happiness, cheerfulness and sense of humor. Each symbol also presented a thoughtful lesson. “The beauty of the soul and the nobility of heart always surpass sorrow, loss and misery in human beings,” added Hung.

The exhibition is on till 24 September 2011.

Nature Balance wins Siemens Vietnam’s video contest

The clip Nature Balance won first prize in video contest ‘Sustainability - All We Need Is U’ ahead of four other shortlisted entries.

The contest was initiated by Siemens Vietnam to increase awareness about sustainability and to appeal to a sense of responsibility and responsive actions among young people.

The jury panel chose the cartoon clip of Nguyen Van Thanh as his production vividly and perceivably depicts a dark future of humanity if we continue to destroy the natural balance for economic growth. The fifth year student from Hanoi University of Industrial Fine Arts received a Sony Vaio laptop.

The second prize of a digital camera Canon PowerShot S95 was for ‘Trees’ Talk’ clip of Stormie Brand group in Hanoi and the third prize of an IPod touch 32GB for Nguyen Thanh Trung in HCMC for his ‘Heart Talk from the City I Love’.

Organizers shortlisted five from the 51 entries for the final round last week in HCMC, when finalists had to make a presentation about their video clips and answer questions from the jury panel. There were also consolation prizes of a portable hard drive Hitachi HDD 500GB for fourth and fifth place.

Jury member Vu Khac Vien from the HCMC Academy of Theatre and Cinema, commented that the contestants were talented and thoughtful.
 
Popular European game show arrives

The Vietnamese version of highly-rated European game show Clueless will be aired on HTV7 every Sunday at 11 a.m. starting from October 2 under the title Thu tai thach tri (mind challenge).

Organizers, HCMC Television and Dong Tay Promotion bought the copyright from Poland-based ATM Grupa. Clueless is the highest-rated TV program in ten European countries including Italy, Greece, Spain and Czech Republic.

Thu tai thach tri is an interesting quiz show for both players and television audiences because it creates some thorny situations seeing people make quick decisions to win big cash.

The format is that the contestant and the host will sit at a table in the studio to answer questions in different fields of studies and there’s a paper shredder between them. The contestant begins by choosing five numbered envelopes from a board of 50. Each envelope has a check inside with an unknown value, ranging from VND100,000 to VND50 million. Only the host and TV viewers know the value of the check inside the envelopes. Then, the host aks five questions that the contestant tries to answer in 30 seconds. For each correct answer, the player gets to keep one envelope, but for every incorrect answer, he or she has to shred one. The climax of this game show is after the five questions, the host offers the player various amounts of money to tempt them to trade their envelopes for cash. Not knowing how much money is in each envelope makes the decision very difficult and the contestant is put under a great deal of pressure.

Supermodel/actor Binh Minh will be the host of Thu tai thach tri. Some popular artists will participate in the show.

Local artists to explore Muong ethnic culture  

An art camp is currently being held at the Muong Ethnic Group Cultural Space Museum in the northern province of Hoa Binh that aims to create a bridge between the local traditional culture and contemporary art.

According to artist Vu Duc Hieu, who founded the museum in 2007, the event will attract 21 local artists - 13 sculptors, seven painters, and one sound artist - who will work on their new art work during the camp, Saigon Tiep Thi newspaper reported.

Their completed work will then be on display at the museum during the traditional festival of the Muong Ethnic Group, which will begin September 30.

In addition, the artists, including Ly Truc Son, Dao Chau Hai, Nguyen Ngoc Lam, and Pham Quang Tran Minh, will pay two visits to Muong villages in the mountainous area of Hoa Binh.

Hieu said that both the museum and the workshop aim to preserve the group’s cultural heritage and to offer local artists opportunities to improve their creativity in new environments. The camp will run until September 25.

Future Shorts One to play at Yoko  

Future Shorts One, the monthly global film festival, will take place at Yoko Bar in Ho Chi Minh City on September 25.

The event features a diverse range of dramas, comedies and music videos from 15 countries - from Australia to Vietnam, Georgia to the UK.

Other highlights include a music video for the New York band Cults’ Go Outside and Paolo Sassanelli’s War.

Yoko bar is located at 22A Nguyen Thi Dieu Street, District 3, HCMC.

Tickets are priced at VND60,000 for general admission and VND30,000 for students.

Vietnam names contestant for Manhunt International

Truong Nam Thanh of Ho Chi Minh City will take part in the Manhunt International modeling contest to be held in Seoul (Korea) at the end of this month.

One of the premier competitions in the world for men, Manhunt seeks to discover modeling talents with both looks and skills.

Thanh, 20, participated in the prestigious Vietnam Supermodel Contest last year, winning the Best Body prize and making it to the top 10.

He also won the “Model Star 2011” held by PL Modeling Agency earlier this year in HCMC.

He has modeled for a number of underwear brands and acts in TV dramas like “Cuoi duong bang”, “Cam hung hoan hao” and “Xin loi em chi la.”

Vietnam occasionally sends contestants to Manhunt International -- like Nguyen Binh Minh (2002) and Ngo Tien Doan (2007). Doan’s sixth position has been the best result so far.

The contest will take place in Seoul from September 28 to October 10.

Officials sorry for erotic dance at child party

Local officials at Tien Phong commune in Hanoi’s Ba Vi district said they were to blame for the indecent dance incident that occurred Sunday at the Mon Festival party for children, VietnamNet reported.

The event featured a dance performance where young women from a dance troupe in Hanoi wore scanty clothes and swayed about sensually.

Present among the audience, besides the children and their parents, were local authorities including Nghiem Xuan Cuong, the head of the Tien Phong People’s Committee.

According to Cuong, right after the first dance, he requested the dancers’ subsequent performances be left out.

The organizers originally invited Hanoi girl group Do Re Mi to perform at the event but later switched to this dance troupe, which comprises students from the Hanoi National Dance Academy.

The change of plan is attributed to the national mourning on September 10-11 for the passing of former president Vo Chi Cong.

“As there was no rehearsal, we didn’t know they would dress and dance like this,” Cuong explained.

He said the committee had a meeting about this and admitted their responsibility.

Skepticism greets plan to turn bridge into museum

A VND4.68 trillion (US$227 million) plan proposed by architect Nguyen Nga to convert Hanoi’s century-old Long Bien Bridge into a contemporary art museum has met with resistance from the public and even other architects.

Architects have wondered if it is a waste to spend almost VND5 trillion to turn a bridge that still plays an important role in transportation into a museum.

If Nga is allowed to go ahead with the plan, the bridge will no longer be used for rail traffic, and a new bridge will be built to replace it.

A space will be created to exhibit old steam locomotives and cars that will be turned first into cafes and restaurants.

A contemporary art museum in the shape of a lotus will be built on the right bank.

The project has been called “a pipedream” since it also envisages converting a portion of the riverbank into a park with natural and artificial gardens and resorts on its alluvial soil.

Nga has said if she gets approval to go ahead, she will not depend on government funding but will look to the French government and private donors.

Her interest in the bridge is not something new. She organized the two Long Bien Bridge festivals in 2009 and 2010.

The 2.5-km bridge was built in 1903 by French architects Daydé & Pillé, and was one of the longest in Asia at the time.

Hanoi art college to host prehistoric exhibition

The Hanoi University of Fine Art will next week house an art exhibition on Vietnam’s northern prehistoric Dong Son Culture that dated back 1,800 – 2, 500 years.

“Dongsonian Art” will showcase ancient antiques belonging to the period such as statues, tools, ornaments as well as clothes and musical instruments.

In collaboration with the Hanoi-based Southeast Asian Prehistoric Center, the university will launch a competition for art students who are encouraged to incorporate Dong Song art elements into their works.

The competition will be sponsored by the Pham Huy Thong Foundation.

“Dongsonian Art” will be open from September 26 to October 3 at The Hanoi University of Fine Art, 42 Yet Kieu Street, Hanoi.

PV