Exhibition: Hanoi Thunder

Opening: Thurs 02 Mar 2023, 06:30 pm – 09 pm
Exhibition: 03 – 21 Mar 2023, 09:30 am – 07 pm
Work Room Four
31 Alley 67 Tô Ngọc Vân, Hà Nội

The exhibition serves as a retrospective of Redington’s etching works; Hanoi Thunder, his collection of Hanoi centric frenetic landscapes, which are entangled and overlaid with landmark symbolism, lead the exhibition. This titled body of work is displayed alongside prints from his earlier epic folio “The Ten Kings of the Courts of Hell”, first shown in Hanoi in 2002 at Art Vietnam. These two series are supplemented by single stand alone etchings from throughout his print career.

Etching has been part of Redington’s work since the mid 80’s, elected member of the Royal Society of Painter Printmakers (UK) in 1994. Redington takes inspiration as he says “from the masterful etchings of Rembrandt, the visionary illuminations of William Blake and the merciless insights of Goya.” Etching is process heavy, and exacting – all marks – intentional or otherwise created in the image making become part of the final printed piece.

Born in London; Simon came to live in Hanoi 25 years ago, the city became his muse and his work since has often focussed on a dialogue with the city itself, Hanoi holds a multitude of stories; those of developing modernity and ancient heritage combined in a rapidly changing urban landscape. The etchings in the exhibition in part portray his relationship with the city, which he viewed as a wonderland of contrast from his previous backdrop of London.

Redington now shares his time between his painting studio in Hanoi and his printmaking workshop in rural France. Redington holds a BA from Goldsmiths College, a Post-Graduate Diploma Art Therapy from Hertfordshire College of Art, and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Advanced Printmaking from Central St. Martins College of Art, London. In 1993 Simon founded his Imprint, the Kamikaze Press and has been showcasing his works in numerous exhibitions and publications since then.

Most recently “The Grand Charade” at SUNY Potsdam, USA, 2018. Significant past exhibitions include “Fine and Dirty: Contemporary Letterpress Art” Minnesota, New York & San Francisco Centre for Book Arts 2011-2013, “On the Fractured State of the Book”, Eagle Gallery, London, 2009, “What’s so funny about Peace, Love & Understanding?” at Art Vietnam Gallery, Hanoi 2008
Redington’s work is featured in a number of notable public collections in the UK and the USA and can be found in the Victoria and Albert Museum, Museum of London, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford University, Art Institute of Chicago, Metropolitan Museum of Art and New York Public Library.

”If Known Tell, If Not Tell Fortune” – Saigon Edition

02 – 04 Mar 2023, 07:30 pm
Vườn Thảo Điền
34 đường 11, Thảo Điền, Thủ Đức, HCMC

O velvet curtain, o red silk
O clapper, song lang, tabor drum
We are here, the market’s newly-arrived troupe
Our clacking trays unveil, o numerous lilting voices
Trường Kịch Ta is pleased to present “Biết thì Nói, Không thì Bói”, a stage play by Trà Nguyễn, to mark the start of the year of the Water Cat. Typical of her style, the play will bring forth a quiet and extremely slow-footed experience.

Slow movement is not unfamiliar to theatergoers around the world, be it from classical Japanese Noh plays or Robert Wilson’s operas. In such plays, performers are almost barred from going outside the established image of the role. They must not reveal themselves through “playing” the role but, on the contrary, find ways to unlock it using their bodies through subtle, drawn-out gestures on stage, something the audience would have a lot of time to observe. Slowness, according to critic and scholar Han-Thies Lehman, is a distinctive feature of post-dramatic theater.(*)

Engaging with the post-dramatic mode, “Biết thì Nói, Không thì Bói” (shorthanded as “The Fortune Telling” play) probes into its characters’ abilities to generate stories: three performers in identical outfits moving at a glacial pace in space. No story is told in words, and no situations or conflicts emerge from the dialog. Audiences can drop in and out any time they choose and hence, go home with their version of the play. Inspired by village social environment and landscapes, as well as the life wishes and wisdom instilled in idioms and proverbs, the work opens up a different theatrical experience: audience interaction is an inevitable part of the performance.

The play has little to no dialog. After March 3 evening, the troupe will have a small discussion post-show with the audience to share the experimenting process of the work.

Exhibition “Introspection”

Until Mar 18, 09 am – 02 pm
11:11 Espace, 39 Nguyen Duy Hieu Street, Thu Duc District, HCM City

For this February, 11:11 d’Artistes is promoting self-reflection, especially through one’s own emotions and mental processes through the idea of “Introspection” with a solo exhibition from Mzung Nguyen.

Ô Cách Ciné Presents ‘A Chance Encounter’

 

03 pm – 05 pm & 05:30 pm – 07:30 pm
Sat: 25 Feb & 04, 11, 18, 25 Mar 2023
Sun: 26 Feb & 05, 12, 19, 26 Mar 2023
Á Space
Alley 59 Ngô Gia Tự, Long Biên, Hà Nội (turn right in the end of the alley, go straight 500m more)

This February 25th, Ô Cách Ciné is officially open at Á Space and will welcome its first visitors!

Three people catch sight of themselves in the scene of an encounter. Senses of a crystal-clear friendship and consolations bind themselves to a promise to reunite on an unfixed date before hitting the roads with their itinerary.

This February 2023, they are to meet again at Ô Cách Ciné in a film titled ‘A chance encounter’. For this encounter, each of them incorporates the stories they want to tell into a shared structure: events associated with the life of the monk Thích Nhất Hạnh, Từ Phúc’s search for immortality, and fragmented, layered splinters of different landscapes.

Four years gone by with undetermined crossroads, plans, and calculations of lives, only the promise is still there, nested by the longings for meeting and seeing-finding each other again.

‘A Chance Encounter’
A film by Như Văn, Lê Xuân Tiến and Nguyễn Trần Nam

– The film exists in 02 versions. Each showtime will screen one version.
– The maximum capacity of Ô Cách Ciné is 9 seats. Please register in advance for your slots and purchase tickets at the entrance.
– You need to arrive at least 15 minutes prior to the showtime to reserve your seats. Popcorn and drinks are also sold at the reception.
– If you have any questions or problems, feel free to reach out to our hotline 093.685.1457 (Hồng Anh).

Exhibition “Fate”

Until Mar 25, 10 am – 06:30 pm
Hanoi Studio Gallery, No. 23-25 Mac Dinh Chi Street, Ba Dinh District, Hanoi

There is something that echoes in the voice of the painter, and her lit up face.

“I have finally been able to draw the face of Buddha.
In fact, I have been praying that he would let me draw his face..”

The way a young female painter opens her heart after countless failures, facing her own difficult challenge to draw a face from her own imagination- the face of the Buddha. A face that has been framed by concepts of ancient aesthetic and convention.

Travel down the thousands years road of history, generations of artists have been receiving their inspiration from the scared ones. We wonder, from which auspicious breeze of wind, did the female artists receive their inspiration to recreate Buddha portraits again for themselves and for their generation?

Drawing with Others (In Art and Research)

Sun 05 Mar 2023, 02 pm – 05 pm (Hanoi time)
Heritage Space
Fl.03 Armephaco building
No.8 Tăng Bạt Hổ st., Phạm Đình Hổ ward, Hai Bà Trưng dist., Hanoi (go straight till end of lane no.8, then turn left to the 4fl. building, get into the 3th floor.

The workshop is for all those who are interested in observing people and the world around them, want to try to describe the world in the language of painting, or simply want to explore a local market together. The workshop was guided by an artist-researcher from NOVA University Lisbon. You do not need to know how to draw to still be able to join the program.

Description of the proposal: Following the experience of field work as an artist and art anthropologist using collaborative drawing as a method of research, I propose a program that will allow artists and researchers to use drawing as an immersive tool as well as a form of constituting multiple relations. Artists and social researchers share the quality of being inquisitive observers while drawing is a form of attentive observation of the world. Art anthropology in the turn of the century proposes an alliance, a crossing of borders, looking for affinities between the two disciplines and shared practice of representation of others, promoting encounters between artists and researchers and instigating objects of knowledge.

Drawing allows us to keep moments that can rarely be mentioned or measured. It can be a form to connect the experience of observation and description or a discovery of an event. While the power of the sketchbook is its internal logic and variety of material registered, the shared graphic diary can allow us a pursue of relational texture.

Output: Having the Hom Market, in Hanoi, as a chosen field of observation, the proposal includes exercises of observation using drawing as a tool for analysis and depiction of reality. We will pay attention to the relationship between people and objects, the objects materiality and its pathways, kinship and technical practices. We will also focus on how space is used by the people and how the market and its surroundings relate to the city. The collaborative drawing will allow to challenge each participant’s own perception as a form of reflection on participation and representation in art and research.

Exhibition “Harmonize”

Until Apr 25, 09:30 am – 06 pm
V-Art Space, Floor 1 Ciputra Club, Bac Tu Liem District, Hanoi

After the success of two solo exhibitions “It” (2005) and “The Corner to See” (2014), visual artist Tran Trung Thanh remarks on another decade of hard work with the “Harmonize” exhibition. The artist’s journey in search of answers to questions about history, the development of society, and the intersection of life, science, and art is recorded via more than 30 oil paintings. Accompanying the exhibition is artist Vuong Pat Cam and his impressive works about Hanoi.

Meticulous, persistent, and profound are what we can say about the process of Tran Trung Thanh creating his artworks. Since the Jeunes Regard competition for young artists in 2004, Tran Trung Thanh’s painting style has become more and more bold.

Neither surrealism nor hyperrealism, Tran Trung Thanh encodes his notions of life into unique characters. Each painting presents a social issue of Vietnam or the world along with questions about history, international diplomacy, and the intersection of life – science – art.

“Harmonize” is the third solo exhibition of artist Tran Trung Thanh.

’More Than Human’#1: The Understories

Opening: Thurs 23 Feb 2023, 06:30 pm
Open studio: Wed – Sun, 24 Feb – 19 Mar 2023, 11 am – 07 pm
The front yard of manzi art space & manzi exhibition space
14 Phan Huy Ích & no.2 ngõ Hàng Bún, Ba Đình, Hà Nội

A fleeting outline scribbled down, that outline of a Story not yet to be fully-formed just awaiting to be unveiled, but rather of the happenings to be encountered and recorded.

We will see, hear, and feel them – the ‘beings’ of ‘The Understories’ breathing, growing, staying alert to their surroundings, responding to stimuli: They do not only interact with each other (like with their neighboring species) but also react with internal factors of the exhibition space (their living conditions), as well as with the audience – external stimuli (or invaders of their environment); not to mention that they also respond to the flow of time.

However, just as a draft script is still open to adaptations and improvisation, ‘The Understories’ has a huge potential for unusual twists and spontaneous turns because conflict is inherent in all forms of systematization, no matter if it’s a natural or social structure. In such unavoidable collisions between the dynamic parts and the static whole, between the free will of individuals and the intrinsic limits of collective action, the Climax (of this whole staging) will emerge.

Then what to be revealed in the aftermath of all those more-than-human experiences: ‘Everything has a Spirit’ (in theory of animalism) or ‘Everything is transient’ (in Buddhism and Taoism). At the end of all these rhythms, what’s to come: A state of rest in the perfect & eternal equilibrium? Or a point of extinction signaling an upcoming phase of post-apocalyptic rebirth?

Until Mar 2
11:1, Amanaki Thao Dien
10 Đ. Nguyen Dang Giai Street, Thu Duc District, HCM City

The French Institute of Vietnam, in collaboration with 11:11 d’Artistes, is pleased to present “Cây cỏ Việt Nam”, an exhibition by artist Thomas Andrea Barbey, resident of the Villa Saigon artist residency program.

His exhibition “Cây cỏ Việt Nam” will be an opportunity for the artist to unveil a new series of paintings and lacquers representing the forms of the Vietnamese landscape and its vegetation, in Saigon, but also along the Mekong River and its tributaries.

In Saigon, Thomas Barbey is pursuing a long term artistic work, a journey aiming at exploring the world in its geographical as well as contemplative aspects. His exhibition is the story of a fictitious walk in a land where rivers, twilight, jungle, and portraits alternate…

The public will be able to discover the technique of traditional Vietnamese engraved lacquer, which remains very little practiced today. Associated with contemporary subjects staged by the artist, this process offers a striking result of modernity, while paying a deep tribute to Vietnam, its skills and its landscapes.

Exhibition “All Aboard”

Until Apr 1, 10 am – 07 pm
Galerie Quynh, 118 Nguyễn Văn Thủ, Đa Kao ward, D1, HCM City

An adherent of Buddhist philosophy, Nguyen Manh Hung proposes that death is a journey and karma is its luggage filled with good and bad deeds as one goes about one’s daily life.

Some prepare for their post-life with sophisticated funeral rituals; others fill their luggage with only good karma hoping to arrive at a place that may not exist. In his characteristically playful adaptation of everyday scenarios, Nguyen Manh Hung’s latest series of work in the exhibition ‘All Aboard’ conjures up a highly contrasting and absurd pairing: a frenzied crowd hurriedly and narrowly holding onto a sacred gate, which leads to the unknown. While poking fun at the living’s obsession with heaven — a realm that exceeds the comprehension of earthly beings, this series reminds us that death is highly personal and unique: how we live reflects our preparation for this journey.

Like a command, ‘All Aboard’ urges us to contemplate the meaning of human existence as characterised by our own subjective understanding of what lies on the other side of the gate.

Exhibition ‘No more, not yet’

Display: Feb – June, Wed & Fri, 10 am – 04 pm
EMASI Nam Long (D.7)
Tues & Thurs, 10 am – 04 pm
EMASI Vạn Phúc, Thu Duc District, HCM City
*and every last Saturday of the month

Nguyen Art Foundation (NAF) proudly invites you to the opening of ‘No more, not yet’, an exhibition that looks back on Nguyen Thi Thanh Mai’s shapeshifting artistic practice in all its multiplicity.

Winner of the Artist Excellence Award (inaugural edition, initiated by The Factory Contemporary Arts Centre and managed by in-tangible institute), her work is presented here alongside nearly 20 artists whom she calls her colleagues and friends.

The exhibition will be on display from February to June 2023 across the campuses of EMASI Nam Long and EMASI Van Phuc.

Exhibition “This is not A Dream”

Until Mar 12, 10 am – 09 pm
Vincom Center for Contemporary Art (VCCA), B1 – R3, Vincom Mega Mall Royal City, 72A Nguyen Trai, Thanh Xuan District, Hanoi

Featuring nearly 100 classic works in digital versions of two great Surrealists Rene Magritte and Frida Kahlo.

Rene Magritte (Belgium, 1898-1967) and Frida Kahlo (Mexican, 1907-1954) can be seen as the two extremes of Surrealism and the negative. If Frida – who always paints his own reality, Rene paints everyone’s reality – with a twist somewhere.

Magritte’s works, from murals, magazine covers, to classics, are all aimed at an audience. To interact with the audience, Magritte is interested in creating puzzles, unknowns, and visual tricks. He wanted to paint the impossible as a form of realistic expression, thus free from coincidences and coincidences, which was the opposite of contemporary Surrealist painters.

Exhibition “Tết Art 2023″

10:00 – 18:30, Until Mar 31,
Hanoi Studio Gallery, No. 23-25 Mac Dinh Chi Street, Ba Dinh District, Hanoi

Tết Art – an annual event that we, along with painters and sculptors, always want to bring to the public every Spring.

The nostalgic north wind, the crowded street, and the year-end hustle. The season of busyness, the “walking”, the “watching”, the “sightseeing”, and moments of family reunion.

Photographs by Thomas Billhardt

Mar 03 – 29,

Floor 2 – Deutsches Haus, 33 Le Duan District

33 Lê Duan Street, D1, HCMC

Thomas Billhardt (*1937 in Chemnitz) is considered one of the most important documentary photographers in the GDR. He was a freelance photojournalist and became world famous through publications in international magazines and through exhibitions in numerous countries. His pictures documented the horrors of the Vietnam War for the first time, especially in the faces of the children he photographed.