Sai Gon, cay xanh và do nat” (Sai Gon, Trees and Destruction), a gouache sketch by Freddy Nadolny Poustochkine (Photo courtesy of the organiser)

The exhibition, held by the French Institute in Vietnam, takes its conceptual inspiration from a picture of a felled pine tree in the Cévennes of France, an incident Poustochkine encountered by chance.

When he learned about the devalued rubber trees in the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai from Tung, both artists wanted to bring the fallen trees’ sap which bore the spirit of the trees into art works.

Comic book artist Poustochkin presents a collection of gouache sketchbook and video diaries capturing his memories of landscapes in urban areas and nameless faces that he saw in Ho Chi Minh City and Buon Ma Thuot city in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak over the years.

Poustochkin, a graduate of École Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (School of Decorative Arts) in Strasbourg, France, has been fascinated by Vietnam since 2002.

In 2011, he was awarded a writing grant from the Centre National du Livre to spend a year in Vietnam and create sketchbooks, graphics and videos about his experiments in the country.

Tung, a native of Dak Lak province, introduces an installation using a seared tree root, a string of wooden praying beads, and an image of insects on a wing made of steel.

The work depicts an ethnographic text on indigenous beliefs from the Central Highlands, and images of the fragile highland forests.

Born in 1986, Tung graduated from the HCM City Fine Arts University in 2010 with a degree in lacquer painting.

His works are a combination of video, installation, painting and found objects that reflect his personal thoughts, social changes and the issue of race, religion and politics.

The exhibition will close on May 21.-VNA