Exhibition “Movement”
 

Opening: Fri 21 Oct 2022, 06 pm
Exhibition: 21 – 29 Oct 2022, 09 am – 05 pm
Ho Chi Minh City Museum of Fine Arts
No. 97A Phó Đức Chính, D.1, HCMC

“Movement” by Mzung Nguyen is a solo exhibition, a visual essay reflecting the transition of urban life through a mixed discipline of collage-art practices. In terms of materials, this project collects and reuses hundreds of old magazines, which have been published during the past decade. Mzung Nguyen finds motivation in tracking the shifts in time and space, the replacement of old and new values, the cultural disparity between tradition and modernity, and the contrasts between human life and the natural world that are printed out in these old publications.

Mzung Nguyễn was born in 1982, in central Vietnam. She graduated from journalism studies in 2006 and started her career as a writer. After engaging with several different forms of writing, Mzung Nguyen focused on writing film scripts and was soon persuaded to embark on a professional career in making films. Her works have been released internationally, and Mzung Nguyen has received significant rewards for exploring documentary, short, video-art, and experimental films. After ten years of concentrating on the film sector, Mzung Nguyen started looking for new dimensions of creativity with oil painting and collage. Just as her films did previously, Mzung Nguyen still finds artistic novelty in reflecting a contemporary world, however, through the painting discipline, she is able to capture the stillness missed in her moving-picture works.

LIVESPACE PRO 

Oct 24, 25 & 26
Complex 01, 29, Lane 31/167, Tay Son Street, Hanoi

The music industry includes many players (artists, record companies, venues, agents, digital platforms, etc.). It is a very complex and globalized environment. LiveSpace PRO offers to all stakeholders exchanges with international and Vietnamese experts to better understand the challenges of this industry, to work towards bringing together the sectors of different countries, and to consider solutions for a better integration of Vietnam in international networks. It will also be an opportunity for the artists and the main Vietnamese actors to discover or better know services and products specially designed for the promotion and distribution of the music industry products, and to develop their network in Vietnam and internationally.

The topics discussed, without aiming to be exhaustive, focus on some of the questions that artists, but also the various actors of the music industry, in Vietnam and internationally, may have.

During the first round table, we will focus on questions related to the development of an artistic career: should artists privilege self-publishing or entrust their creations to a label? Apart from the income from the sale of their music on CDs or online, as well as from concerts, can artists hope for other resources? And can they really live from their music in Vietnam?

The second round table raises the question of Vietnam’s attractiveness for international artists’ tours: how to structure festivals and concert halls to help organize coherent tours? How can we better inform tour operators, agents and international artists of major events and opportunities to perform in Vietnam? But could the increase in international artists’ tours reduce the chances for local artists to find dates to perform on their own soil?

The third panel focuses on the international career development of Vietnamese artists: After a presentation of France’s strategy to support the development of its artists for export, which could inspire practices in Vietnam, we will reflect on how Vietnamese artists can be spotted to tour internationally, and on the interest that this can present, and also on the role of digital platforms in promoting artists outside the territory.

20th Century Music Concert Series: Concert No. 11 – IRRER KLANG

Thurs 27 Oct 2022, 07:30 pm
Goethe Institut
56-58-60 Nguyen Thai Hoc, Ba Dinh, Hanoi

Welcome back to the 20th Century Music Concert Series, organized by Maestoso, Inspirito School of Music and Goethe Institut Hanoi.

The 20th Century Music Concert Series (20th Century Music Concert Series) has surpassed the 10 program’s milestone to the program number 11. This is a very special program because for the first time the entire concert spent the entire performance time for only percussion.

Irrer Klang – the theme name of the German performance means “crazy sound” will surely bring a lot of surprises to those who are passionate about classical music as well as contemporary music.

The world of a percussionist can often be strange and chaotic. Kyle Acuncius has chosen repertoire for this concert to be both visually and aurally stimulating with the intention of challenging the audience to hear percussion instruments with a fresh perspective. Some of the pieces will blur the boundaries of what is considered music and performance art while others will reveal new and innovative techniques and timbres on seemingly familiar instruments.

The program has the participation of: Kyle Acuncius (Percussion), Chaiyaphat Prempree (Percussion), Hyang Gee Lee (Percussion)

* Ticket: 250.000 VND, Combo 3 tickets: 600.000 VND, Combo 4 tickets: 800.000 VND, Combo 5 tickets: 1.000.000 VND

SiaM vol. 18: Sketches of the Reeds

Oct 27, 08 pm
Tita Art, 164A Tran Vu Street
Oct 28, 08 pm
TED Saigon Art Education Centre, 74 Truong Cong Giai Street, Hanoi

Reed is an irreplaceable part of any woodwind instrument, and it’s vital for the creation of musical sounds in them. That’s why in an orchestra, woodwind instruments are referred to as “reeds” — to acknowledge the role that this little element play in creating the lively tones and colors in the music.

With Vol. 18, we invite you to discover these various shades of music through “Sketches of the Reeds” — an incredibly unique SiaM concert that, for the first time, will feature four instruments in the woodwind family (the oboe, the clarinet, the bassoon, and the English horn).

The winding echoes of longing following the slow rise of the sun in Shepherds de Provence, op. 43 by Eugene Bozza; the soft delightfulness in Divertimento no. 1 KV. 439 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; the tale-like melody in Four Sketches by Peter Hope; and the Trio in B minor, op. 27 by Edouard Destenay—these are the four compositions will make up a vivid conversation between woodwind instruments and their wonderful abilities to stir up the emotions of listeners.

Hoàng Mạnh Lâm (oboe)
Bagaskoro Byar Sumirat (oboe, English horn)
Trần Khánh Quang (clarinet)
Yuta Yasutake (bassoon)
Hsin-Chiao Liao (piano)

SiaM vol. 18 will happen in two locations and times:

Night 1: Thurs 27 Oct 2022, 08 pm
Tita Art, 164A Tran Vu, Ba Dinh Hanoi

Night 2: Fri 28 Oct 2022, 08 pm
TED Saigon Art Education Center, 74 Truong Cong Giai, Dich Vong, Cau Giay, Hanoi

Ticket price: 300.000 đ/person.

Month of Arts Practice 2022

03 Oct – 15 Dec 2022
Hanoi & Online

Month of Arts Practice (MAP) abbreviated as MAP, is an annual art project of Heritage Space. MAP was initiated and operated since 2015 with a view to creating a space for composing and developing contemporary art on the basis of cooperation and interaction among Vietnamese and international artists. Each year, MAP sets out a specific theme, inviting the participation of international acclaimed artists and curators come to Hanoi (Vietnam) to practice and exchange with talented young Vietnamese artists..

Month of Arts Practice 2022 – the 8th season of MAP continues with the WAR theme. Through discussion and art practice during their residency in Vietnam from October to December, artists together reflect, exchange, and present their premonitions about the wars from the past to present time by different perspectives and minor histories, about unknown entanglements, unnamed truths, and uncertain future in a volatile world. The work results will be presented to the public through Artist’s talk, especially during the Final Exhibition 2022 at the end of November in Hanoi.

There are 10 artists from Germany, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam participating in this project: Oscar Lebeck, Miho Shimizu, Bae Byung Wook, Ryusuke Ito, Sodam Lim, Nguyễn Minh Hoàng, Mi Fa, Jo Ngô & Lê Minh Châu and Lê Tú Anh. The project also has contributions and mentoring through lectures and exchanges from experts: curator Haruka Iharada (居原田遥), Dr. Pamela Nguyen Corey, curator Gahee Park, Prof. Dr. Nora Annesley Taylor, and guest artist Lê Nguyễn Duy Phương.

Month of Arts Practice 2022 is organized by Heritage Space in close cooperation with Japan Foundation Center for Cultural Exchange in Vietnam, Korea Foundation, and with the support of the Vietnam Institutes for Cultural and Art Studies (VICAS), Á Space, Matca, APD Center for Art Patronage and Development, Nha San Collective, the Goethe-Institut, TÁCH Space, A sông, Hanoi Grapevine, Artplas and Art Republik Vietnam.

Programme:

30 Oct: The 1st Artist’s talk – What do I say when I talk about the war?
05 Nov: The 2nd Artist’s talk – What do I say when I talk about the war?
12 Nov: The 3rd Artist’s talk – What do I say when I talk about the war?
19 Nov: The 4th Artist’s talk – What do I say when I talk about the war?
27 Nov – 17 Dec (10 am – 07 pm everyday): WAITING ROOM, the MAP 2022 exhibition.
03 Dec – 17 Dec (10:30 am – 12 pm every weekend): WAITING ROOM Exhibition tour. 

Exhibition ‘Notes on Paper'

Until Oct 27, 10 am – 07 pm (last entry is at 06:30pm), Tues – Sat,
Galerie Quỳnh, 118 Nguyen Van Thu, D1, HCMC

A vernacular material both in everyday life and art, paper has never ceased to inspire artists for its ubiquity, versatility, and incredible socio-historical weight – paper is synonymous with knowledge transmission and archiving. From a site where ideas could delve, paper is also a medium that evolves together with ideas as its varying sizes, textures, and thickness allow for surface and structural manipulation. Bringing together works by François Andes, Ha Manh Thang, Nguyen Huy An, Trong Gia Nguyen, Nguyen Manh Hung and Nguyen Tran Nam, ‘Notes on Paper’ highlights the kaleidoscopic nature of this unassuming material, at the same surveying the gestures that come along with it such as mark-making, painting, writing, and erasing.

Conjuring up the receding landscape of the Northern Vietnam countryside Ha Manh Thang’s series ‘Far in the North’ (2013 – ongoing) is both an archiving attempt and a philosophical reflection on the finitude of life. The paper, with its flair for resistance, now bears the significance of the identities of now-defunct temples and pagodas as Thang layers his memory of them and their original blueprints found by pure chance. Echoing the rather similar state of nostalgia, Nguyen Huy An manages to capture the essence of the Northern Vietnamese countryside through the image of the pond and water temples – where most of the village activities take place. What at first looks like a static, non-directional round mass as the ink seeps into each and every pulp of the Dó paper, reveals to be a symbol laden with stories: the legacy and heritage of communal lifestyle, and the artist’s personal rumination on being.

Repetition, especially that of his quirky subject matters – usually an odd juxtaposition between the feudal and contemporary periods, is consistently seen throughout Nguyen Manh Hung’s practice. It is a technique Hung uses to highlight the perpetual contradictory nature of everything that strikes him as inevitable. The fire truck, which is synonymous with the state of emergency, now has its tyres replaced by turtles moving in different directions, is a playful depiction of the not-so-harmonious coordination amongst individuals in a collective. Instead of sitting in his palanquin, the king now roams in what appears to be a half of a car that could not move on its own, suggesting the unique localisation of Western inventions in Vietnam. As fragments from the pictorial epic ‘The crossing of disaster’ (2020), which is a combination of whimsical mythical characters, alluring flora and faunas, Francois Andes’s paintings and sketches breakdown the multiple influences that inform his artistic practice: Greek mythology, Yoruba culture, Vietnamese folklore, and French heritage. Also using the image of a turtle, however, Andes’ sketches show his appreciation for a creature that is closely linked to Vietnamese folkloric belief and nationalism.

Nguyen Tran Nam’s stop-motion video ‘Through the looking glass’ (2022) guides us through an imaginary underground maze of thirteen tunnels. Instead of a lush magical world like in Alice in Wonderland, or gruesome hell in Dante’s Inferno, life in each tunnel is not that much different from our current reality. Featuring ten latest titles from his ‘Library (Anthology for Beginners)’ (2007 – ongoing), Trong Gia Nguyen reframes the notion of the library as a repository of knowledge, in particular how books accumulate and disseminate information and ideas. Fashioned as library cards, the rice ‘books’ disregard all hierarchy in the collected words – articles like ‘the’ and ‘a’ and prepositions such as ‘on’ and ‘with’ carry equal weight as more charged, descriptive words subverting the writers’ prose.

A continuation of his 2016 project of the same title in which Huy An explores the myths of Guan Yin in modern context, this iteration of ‘Thousand arms and Thousand eyes’ is a distillation of the artist’s poetical and comical commentary on the commercialisation of sacred symbols. Wrinkled, worn-out found receipts become the sole evidence, which justifies the value of a Guan Yin’s arm – supposedly a symbol of the deity’s blessings and supernatural power, while at the same time serving as a makeshift space for rethinking popular belief.

”Nếp xưa” exhibition

From 06 Oct 2022
Hanoi Museum
Pham Hung Street, Nam Tu Liem District, Hanoi

In the first half of the 20th century, the French built administrative buildings following French architecture, planned new streets and expanded Hanoi. Western concepts and lifestyles were introduced to Hanoi, causing many changes. In Hanoi, there are traditional concepts, lifestyles and ways of thinking along side of Western lifestyles and concepts. The exhibition recalls the lives of urban affluent families with a variety of artifacts and documents collected at home and abroad for the public to understand the life of this period. At the same time to convey good traditional cultural values to the next generation, creating a connection between traditional culture and current culture. The exhibition introduces nearly 200 documents and artifacts with four main contents:
– Living room
– Ancestral altar
– Villa
– Traditional five-flap long dress

Hanoi today is very different from the Hanoi of the past; from its architecture, the streets and it moves on due to the law of life. To nurture love with Hanoi it is necessary to have a good memory and an understanding of traditional culture. Joining hands to preserve and follow suit will form new dynamic and cultural classes of Hanoians, contributing to building a more and more solidly developed capital.

Art photos featuring contemporary life

Nov 4-13, HCM City Fine Arts Museum,HCM City

Titled 'Vietnam Art Photo Exhibition', the exhibition features 250 works by 187 photographers.

Introducing Vietnamese people, culture, and landscapes, and thinking of artists on issues of contemporary life.

’The Four Subjects'

Until Nov 5, Tues – Sun, 11 am – 07 pm
Manzi Exhibition Space, 2 Ngo Hang Bun, Hanoi

Manzi is proud to present ‘The Four Subjects’ – a new series of installations by visual artist Nguyễn Huy An, one of the most important figures of Vietnamese contemporary art.

For this comeback after three years (since his third solo show in Saigon), Huy An assembles an exclusive space for singular objects/relationships which would provoke an odd encounter of disparate subjects (they are essentially alien to each other and, at first sight, seemingly unfamiliar to the keen followers of Huy An’s art practices as well).

For this comeback after three years (since his third solo show in Saigon), Huy An assembles an exclusive space for singular objects/relationships which would provoke an odd encounter of disparate subjects (they are essentially alien to each other and, at first sight, seemingly unfamiliar to the keen followers of Huy An’s art practices as well).

The new series of installation artworks features neither a reiteration of Huy An’s recurring motifs centered around his personal memories and the rural Northern Vietnam nor a replay of predominant themes such as local religious & spiritual dimensions and the divine & the profane which had often haunted Huy An’s practices with subtle shading of nostalgia for the past years. ‘The Four subjects’, nevertheless, is a display of his new and ongoing meditations on the potential possibilities of the visible / the action of seeing:
– A study of a very narrow blind area in the horse’s vision
– A reproduction of the comprehensive illustrated encyclopedia of Vietnamese Geography in the reign of Emperor Minh Mạng
– A co-presence of a lasting powerful light source and an ephemeral standard light with the minimum luminous intensity/ traces of its absence
– An extended thread of blanked-out images rhythmically punctuated with 51 bright colorful trails – effects of light leak in the first frames at the beginning of a film roll

A nuanced diagram of various scenarios, a bulleted list of prospects, with conciseness, clarity yet ambiguity, on the basis of diverse references. ‘Four Subjects’, therefore, resists the tendency to be interpreted as a coherent narrative that compels clear-cut messages or epic conclusions, but rather, provides clues of a puzzle lock. Scattered in a clear irreducible space, four sets of installations formulate somewhat of a tricky multi-point latching system; once this mechanism is unlocked with the right key, all pieces eventually fall into place. However, before the time comes, this arrangement, in the form of fragmented archives, is a dissonant structure. Apart from sharing some common characteristics in the artist’s reticence and restraint, along with the faint imprints of his personal codes (the light and shadow, the anonymous emptiness/ darkness and the futile attempt to preserve the remnants of vanishing cultures or to record the faded shades of the past), four installations of ‘The Four Subjects’, albeit connected in one theme called ‘seeing’, manifest themselves in a visual disharmony. This discordant presence sets off a tension of the haphazard and the random, of the absurdity and the evanescence, of the definitive and the infinite.

In that way, entailed in Four Subjects the implication of ‘Seeing or Not Seeing’/‘In sight or Out of sight’ is not a mutually exclusive claim or a two-choice question. Instead, a ‘No’ can be a ‘Yes’ and vice versa, everything is a metaphor. By confronting us with confounding variables in his experiment, Huy An opens up a free space that enables us to go beyond our limited perception which has always been dominated by our sense of sight and visual information.

”Agnes’s New Planets”

27 Sep – 30 Oct
Mơ Art Space, B3 Floor, Apricot Hotel, 136 Hang Trong street, Hoan Kiem district, Hanoi

Mo Art Space cordially invites art lovers to ‘Agnes’s New Planets’ – a solo showcase by artist Duong Thuy Duong. Where do we come from? How do we define ourselves? Are we the product that we created? These are the questions which Duong Thuy Duong wants, together with the viewers,to try to reflect in this exhibition.

Poetry, the Poetic Current – Open Practice in Contemporary Culture
 

01 Oct – 26 Nov 2022
Montauk by LP Club
174 Kim Mã, Hà Nội

In Hanoi, the series of events “Poetry, the Poetic Current – Open Practice in Contemporary Culture” will take place from October 1 to November 26, 2022 at Montauk by LP Club, bringing a new excitement and variety to poetry, expressed not just through the beauty of words, rhymes, rhythm and sounds, but also through visuals, music and theater. This program is also a co-presentation/co-creation of intellectual voices and creative faces in literary theory, culture and contemporary art practice.

The program will include a talk, roundtable, music poetry night, photo poetry book launch and devised theater performance. The aim is to share and connect the cultural and multimedia art practices that are linked by poetry. The program is initiated by MYAN Poetry & Art, with the support of XplusX Studio, Montauk by LP Club, the Center for Movie Talents Development – TPD, Hanoi Grapevine, Tung Tang Studio and Noirfoto Darkroom-Studio-Gallery.

Events in the program include::

(1) Talk “Literary as Allusion Processing” with scholar Ngô Tự Lập
Time: Sat 01 Oct 2022, 03 pm – 05 pm
Moderator: Hương Mi Lê

(2) (2)Music-poetry free-form jam
Time: Thurs 20 Oct 2022. 08 pm – 10 pm
Performing poets & musician : MYAN, mi-mimi, Mạc Mai Sương, Thế Lãng, Lưu Thanh Duy

(3) (3)Roundtable: Poetry, the Poetic Current in Contemporary Culture
Time: Sat 12 Oct 2022, 09:30 am – 11:30 am
Speaker: poet, visual mi-mimi; poet, mixed media MYAN; artist, photographer Phạm Tuấn Ngọc; Literature Doctor Đinh Minh Hằng
Host: Poet, film critic Nguyễn Vũ Hiệp

(4) Photo Poetry Book Launch “6s.10M.in.MOveMENT”
Time: Sun 13 Nov 2022, 09:30 am – 11:30 am
Authur: MYAN

(5) Devised Theater “Leaving Love”
Time: Fri & Sat 25 & 26 Nov 2022, 08 pm – 10 pm
Concept: MYAN
Director & Scenographer: Hà Nguyên Long

* Details and registration for each event of the program “Poetry, the Poetic Current – Open Practice in Contemporary Culture” are updated on the Facebook pages of MYAN Poetry & Art & Hanoi Grapevine.

Exhibition: Illuminated Curiosities

Until Dec 2022
EMASI Nam Long
147 Street No.8, Nam Long Residential area, District 7,
EMASI Van Phuc
2 Street No.5, Van Phuc Residential City, Thu Duc District, HCMC

Nguyen Art Foundation (NAF) proudly invites you to the opening of ‘Illuminated Curiosities’, a group exhibition with 26 artists featuring 46 artworks from within and outside NAF’s Collection. Curated by art researcher Ace Le, with the curatorial assistance from Duong Manh Hung and Tam Nguyen, the exhibition will take place simultaneously across the campuses of EMASI Nam Long and EMASI Van Phuc, over the course of six months from May to December of 2022. ‘Illuminated Curiosities’ is a collaborative effort between NAF and Lan Tinh Foundation.

Exhibition featuring Óc Eo culture

Until Oct 27,
Óc Eo - Ba Thê archaeological site, An Giang Province-

An exhibition featuring more than 200 photos and documents, offering an overview of history and development of Óc Eo culture as well as the preservation work of the Óc Eo - Ba Thê archaeological site.

The event features results from national and international research on the Óc Eo culture, and international cooperation on restoration with experts from South Korea, France and India.

Exhibition “Inside the Garden”

Oct 22 – Nov 15, 09 am – 08 pm
The Muse Artspace, 47 Trang Tien Street, Hanoi

This lacquer painting series “Inside the Garden” is a project starting from early 2019. Artist Vu Van Tich once told us that 3-years is the minimum period that he needs to do preparation, due to the intricacies required in lacquer techniques. Perfecting this artistic medium can be challenging, even with years of experience. The exhibition is made possible thanks to the perseverance driven by passion and discipline of the artist. We have had many discussions regarding the essential techniques and unique values ​​of lacquer – a material that’s mentioned in the book The Artistic Capital of Vietnamese Nation.

Van Tich often concerned himself with the creative directions of lacquer painting. He began by spending 10 years working on simple topics that stem from personal perspectives. The level of sophistication of these paintings is the direct result of Tich’s efforts in the early days.

The exhibition “Inside the Garden” includes 20 artworks that share a coherent composition rhythm. Two paintings, Inside the Garden and Spring is Here, are scaled up to 1,6 meters, depicting the romantic floral scenery of the Northwest region in Vietnam. Other paintings such as Purple Cactus, Wind Day, or Night focus on the elegant beauty, and the different states and characteristics of plants in the garden. Having a cold, gloomy background, the painting Late Afternoon highlights the red-orange hues of the flower bushes. The foliages lurk behind a mysterious night. The painting shines a light on the distant memories that are hidden deep within. Meanwhile, the Golden Mai directly took inspiration from the artist’s personal event. He applied thin layers of multi-tone purple on the surface, and powdered them with reflective silver/gold leaves, producing a clear and vast setting. By using fine silver powder, painting through multi-layer, combining three shades of red, extracted from Cinabrio minerals, fusing artistic quirks such as inverting contrasting spaces, and employing symbolic language, Van Tich has constructed a vibrant and vivacious garden.

Ever since the first professors of the Indochina Fine Arts College introduced lacquer as an artistic medium to Vietnam, Vietnamese lacquer painting has only gone through less than 100 years of development. Nonetheless, it has shortly become a prominent element in Vietnamese art culture. Concerning other materials, lacquer painting has proven difficult to work with. It has various grinding and tempering stages, while other factors, including humidity and weather conditions, can greatly influence the outcome. Materials utilized in lacquer paintings are natural ingredients, namely lacquer, Son pigment, gold, silver, nacre, eggshell, mussel shell, etc. Currently, Van Tich can apply hundreds of substances within the process of composing a lacquer artwork. Regardless, the ultimate factor that constitutes a profound artwork lies not within the structure, but in the spectrum of the artist’s spirit. Therefore, The Muse Artspace proudly presents Van Tich along with the exhibition “Inside the Garden”. May his spirit guide us amid these whimsical and poetic moments.

International science film festival

Oct 8 - Dec 31
Hanoi, Thai Nguyen, Da Nang, and Ho Chi Minh City

The 12th international science film festival featuring a range of scientific topics which are both accessible and entertaining to a broad audience and demonstrates that science can be fun and educational.

Some 16 science films across different categories will be screened during the festival.

Japanese film festival

JAPANESE CINEMA - The Japanese Film Festival 2022 will open in HCM City on October 21 with the screening of animated children’s fantasy film Poupelle of Chimney Town directed by Yusuke Hirota. Photo courtesy of the Japan Foundation

HCM CITY — The Japanese Film Festival 2022, the most anticipated special film event of the year, will take place in HCM City from October 21-30.

The screening will feature eight animated, drama and sports movies which were produced and released in Japan in the last two years.

The films depict colorful lives through the unique view of Japanese filmmakers, conveying deep human values.

Le Ha (Hanoigrapevines)