VietNamNet Bridge – A multimedia contemporary art project kicked off here yesterday, Dec 4, at the Japan Foundation offering participating artists a chance to explore alternative methods of creation and teamwork.

Under the curation of Nguyen Phuong Linh, the project Skylines with Flying People will include pieces ranging from renovation of space, open studio exhibitions, and performance art as well as talks and documentation of the whole project.

A highlight of the project will be the Open Studio that will gather about 10 artists to stay and work at the studios at the Japan Foundation at 27 Quang Trung Street, archiving past work as well as works-in-progress. The Open Studio will welcome visitors during December 5-21 who want to talk with artists about their inspiration.

The other highlight will be exclusively built studios for the participating artists. The studios will include an information centre, the Mami Art Centre Ha Noi, and studios around various themes: a media lab, a mini-theatre, a family kitchen, and a sewing factory, as well as the ESCAPE mobile gallery and a gymnastics area.

The Mami Art Centre Ha Noi studio will be curated by Tuan Mami and Hiroyuki Hattori. It aims to be an experimental and alternative space for contemporary art by conducting the following activities: artist talks, dialogues, presentations and recordings.

The Media Lab studio will be shared by three artists: Nguyen Trinh Thi, Jamie Maxtone Graham and Yuichiro Tamura. They will shoot videos and photos with visitors and demonstrate the editing process.

The Mini Theatre studio is run by the artists from group Appendix. A simple theatre using Vietnamese traditional mats was designed in which the artists will screen their videos.

Two artists, Lai Dieu Ha and Nguyen Quoc Thanh, will run the Sewing Factory where Ha will make sculptured white dresses while Nguyen Quoc Thanh will create a series of uniforms for different functions in different contexts.

A three-wheeled vehicle has been transformed into the mobile gallery called ESCAPE in which Nguyen Tran Nam will work and exhibit his works. Some of his video works will be installed inside the car and the mobile gallery will travel around Ha Noi.

One area of the courtyard in the Japan Foundation will become the Gymnastic Field studio used by Kumpei Miyata for his physical exercises. He will leap over a self-made vault everyday, making the box higher by piling more boxes each day.

Source: VNS