Four artists enjoy ‘Four Seasons’

Twenty-five lacquer works by Tran Thi Thu Ha, Duong Tuan Kiet, Vo Xuan Huy and Nguyen Xuan Anh are being exhibited at Tu Do Gallery in downtown HCMC.

The artists use traditional material to depict contemporary issues. If Ha shows off her profound feelings for love with images of the Garden of Eden, moonlight and spring atmosphere, Kiet is stuck in romance with portraits of ladies and peaceful scenery in Hoi An and Hanoi.

Huy takes advantage of surface effects to create abstract works. Rough cut layers on the paintings’ surfaces functions his obsessions over sunset, home or lotus. Anh diversifies his characters in his paintings, from buildings in the city to streets in the countryside, from mountains to rice fields, from sunlight to moonlight.

The show lasts until the end of the month at the gallery, 53 Ho Tung Mau Street in District 1.

UK music party in town

Free outdoor music parties named ‘Siestes Électroniques’ will be held in HCMC and Hanoi this month.

  These events are especially for experimental music performances. Siestes Électroniques in Vietnam consists of performances of many genres such as electronic music, experimental music as well as Vietnamese traditional music. Attending this year’s gigs are guest musicians from France and Vietnam including Vincent Moon, Laurent Jeanneau, Jean Nipon, Vu Nhat Tan and Nguyen Hong Giang.

  First held in Toulouse in 2002, this festival arrived in Paris in 2011 and has been popular worldwide since 2007. Most of the guest artists are new musicians. The special feature of Siestes Électroniques is that it is organized in the daytime, and in the park where audiences can enjoy music with their friends and families while lying on the grass.

  Siestes Électroniques will take place on October 12 at Tao Dan Park in District 1 and on October 19 at Thong Nhat Park, Hanoi. Both gigs take place from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

  *The British Consulate General in HCMC and Saigon Sound System will host a concert from 7 p.m. onwards today at Q4, 7 Nguyen Tat Thanh Street, District 4. The gig is part of the GREAT Week activities to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the UK-Vietnam diplomatic relations.

  The concert will have performances from Octane OK, Timmy Vegas, White Noiz and No Name. Tickets are available for free.

French electronic band Poni Hoax hits Cargo Bar

Popular electronic band Poni Hoax from Paris will perform at Cargo Bar in District 4 on Wednesday, starting at 9 p.m.

After the HCMC gig the band will head to Hanoi for a gala music festival featuring both Vietnamese and French artists called “Oh la la” at Hang Day Stadium on October 12.

The five-member Poni Hoax, which was created by musician/saxophonist/pianist Lawrence Bardainne in 2001, also features vocalist/musician Nicolas Ker, bassist/keyboard player Arnaud Roulin, guitarist Nicolas Villebrun and drummer/percussionist Vincent Taeger.

 Poni Hoax has been compared to varied popular artists like Daft Punk, Nick Cave, David Bowie and David Byrne. The band is influenced by The Rolling Stones and The Doors.

  Their first album was launched in 2006 with two hits “She’s on the Radio” and “Budapest”. When the second album Images Of Sigrid came out in 2008, the band toured the U.S. and Europe.

  Vocalist Nicolas Ker who has a French father and Cambodian mother spent part of his childhood during wartime in Cambodia and this was the main inspiration for the band’s third album named A State of War released earlier this year.

  The band’s live performance in HCMC hosted by Saigon Sound System and Cargo Bar is among activities to mark the French Year in Vietnam in 2013.

  Tickets are priced at VND150,000 for students and early bookings and VND250,000 at the door.

  Cargo Bar is located at 7 Nguyen Tat Thanh Street in District 4.

  For further information, access Cargo Bar’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/cargosaigon.

SHB, BSH, Collagen Vietnam host drama project for Hanoi students

Saigon-Hanoi Commercial Bank (SHB), Saigon – Hanoi Insurance Corporation (BSH), Collagen Vietnam and Tuoi Tre (Youth) Theater have announced an art project called Chap canh niem tin to feature the popular drama Mua ha cuoi cung (last summer) by late author Luu Quang Vu and a stage club for Hanoi students.

Under the VND2-billion project which runs from this month until December 2014, the organizers will host 100 drama performances and other activities for students at 120 high-schools and universities in the capital. Around 550 free tickets will be delivered to teachers, students and school staff members for the shows which will be held at the Youth Theater, 11 Ngo Thi Nham. All participants have the chance to join lucky draws to win some interesting prizes and memberships of the theater as well as SHB.  

Especially, the organizers will create a stage club for students to share passion for drama and there will be 1,000 vocational scholarships available to enable students to be contributors and gain internships at SHB, BSH and Collagen Vietnam.

“Chap canh niem tin is geared to help students gain knowledge about life as well as equipping them with a financial building plan so they can be useful citizens for the country,” said Ngo Thu Ha, deputy general director of SHB, in a statement.

UNESCO helps Vietnam preserve documentary heritage

Officials working at libraries, museums and archives from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia have been equipped with necessary skills in compiling dossiers to apply for UNESCO recognition of documentary heritage at a training course in Hanoi on October 8.

During the course, experts from the UNESCO International Advisory Committee and the Memory of the World programme talked about the significance of documentary heritage as well as the programme’s objectives.

The officials used the occasion to share their knowledge and experience in compiling dossiers on documentary heritage to submit to the International Memory of the World Register.

Launched in 1992, Memory of the World aims to recognise significant documentary heritage in a similar fashion to the way UNESCO’s World Heritage Convention and World Heritage List recognises significant natural and cultural sites.

Since 2009, Vietnam has had three documentary heritages recognised by the UNESCO Memory of the World, including Nguyen dynasty wood blocks, doctoral stone steles at the Temple of Literature and wood blocks printed with Buddhist Sutras at the Vinh Nghiem Pagoda in the northern province of Bac Giang.

German students present ‘Looking at the Big Sky’ in capital

Thirteen videos of students from German art schools were chosen to be exhibited at the Goethe Institute in Hanoi from Saturday until October 20.

The collection ‘Looking at the Big Sky’ will be exhibited in Goethe Institutes around the world.

Curator Renate Buschmann will give a lecture on the students’ work at the Goethe Institute at 6 p.m. on Friday. The project evokes a variety of different associations, in which the faraway horizon stands as a symbol for vastness of thoughts, freedom, openness, and unlimited possibilities with all these connected with the blue sky or a starlit night.

The artists were supposed to inspire to cross borders, to give free rein to ideas and illusions and think outside the box. The results offer an astonishing variety of motifs and practices when approaching the theme, in which some tell fictional stories, individual assertions and performances are shown, while others present pseudo-documentary formats. Reaching for the sky in so many different ways, the videos sometimes aim at an individual internal view that finds meaning in the seemingly insignificant and unspectacular, and other times seeks to formulate an outlook on the immeasurable and indeterminate.

Hanoi Goethe Institute is located at 56-58 Nguyen Thai Hoc Street in Hanoi.

Irish artist’s solo show at VinGallery

Irish artist Eamonn O’Callaghan, who currently lives and works in Vietnam, will present his solo exhibition ‘Fresco’ at VinGallery in District 2 until Sunday.

O’Callaghan studied at the Crawford College of Art and Design in Ireland and graduated in 2007. Since then he has traveled and taught art in Africa, Europe and Asia.

As an artist he embraces a wide range of influences from the richly textured figurative paintings of Titian and Tintoretto to the broad, expansive abstractions of Barnett Newman.

His paintings explore themes of memory and place expressed through human forms intertwined with poetic landscapes. The figures emerge from the surface of the paintings or dissolve into them, just as memories of someone can be vivid or fade away, forgotten.

Fresco runs until Sunday at VinGallery, 4 Le Van Mien, District 2.

La Huy asks Tran Minh Tam to ‘Stop before moving on’

‘Stop before moving on’ installation exhibition by La Huy and Tran Minh Tam opens today at Nau Café, 110 Le Quang Dinh Street in HCMC’s Binh Thanh District.

Continuing with wax, instead of being serious with monk vests or old Bibles and Buddhist books, Huy in this show steps onto new experiments on daily objects such as cut up newspapers, bird feathers or rope strings. “Life starts from small things, rustic images and I don’t want to miss any of them. The breath of life is exposed strongly from those, reminding me to live and to beautify real things of real life,” said Huy.

Meanwhile, Tam describes the relationship between physical matter and the mental world through plastic bags in varied forms and shapes with water inside. Works are continued from last year’s solo exhibition ‘The Form’ - his sensory experience of the image and the subject, an interaction between physicality and mentality and a synthesis of formalism and implications.

“Artworks evoke thoughts rather than assert, presenting the inner world of humans which is always complicated with diverse emotions, temptations, meditation as well as thoughts which are hidden under the fabulous, smooth and colorful exterior like nylon bags,” said Tam.

The show runs until next weekend.

Winners of An Giang ox race named

Ox owner Duong Van Nghiep and ox controller Nguyen Van Lam have won the first prize in the 22nd Bay Nui (Seven Mountains) Ox Racing Festival - An Giang Television Cup held on October 4 at the racetrack of Vinh Trung Commune, Tinh Bien District in the Mekong Delta province of An Giang.

The competition attracted 64 pairs of bulls from An Giang and nearby provinces. The second place came to ox owner Nguyen Van Ut while Nguyen Van Hy pocketed third place.

First launched as a festival in 1992, the ox race is a traditional folk game of Khmer ethnic people in southern Vietnam in celebrating the Sene Dolta Festival.

Saddle up for ponies and riding day

 The Saigon Pony Club will hold an "Open Day" this Sunday, when entry will be free for the public.

It will feature pony rides in the morning, and pony rides and a show jumping competition in the afternoon.

Open Day will be held from 9am to 5pm at 38, lane 42, Le Van Tinh Street, District 2.

Taiwan's top metal band ready to thrash

Vanity Production Vietnam will present a performance by metal band ChthoniC, who won the Best Band Award at this year's Taiwan Golden Melodies Award Ceremony, at Hard Rock Cafe next Monday.

The concert will also feature several local and international artists.

The band's lyrics are inspired by Taiwanese mythology, folk stories, and history and music is influenced by traditional Taiwanese folk music, including traditional instruments like the erhu (bowed string instrument), zheng (plucked string instrument), and pgaku flute.

The show will start at 8.30pm.

Folk rock to feature with Peter Maybarduk show

Hanoi Social Club will host a mini show featuring Washington DC-based indie folk-rock musician Peter Maybarduk on Friday night.

Maybarduk, whose latest album A Ring around the Atlantic has received critic acclaim, will showcase his delightful melodies and thoughful lyrics during the performance at 6 Hoi Vu Street from 8-10pm.

Tickets available on the door.

Thousands of books are on display at Autumn Book Fair 2013 which opened at the Vietnam Women’s Museum in Hanoi on October 10.

The four-day event is part of activities to celebrate the 59th anniversary of the city’s Liberation Day and the 83rd anniversary of the Vietnam Women’s Union.

In her opening speech, the Women’s Publishing House Director Nguyen Thi Tuyet said that the fair aims to promote the traditional values of reading culture  in response to the 2013 Vietnamese Family Year.

The fair has some 4,000 publications with a total of 8,000 copies covering politics, culture, history, literature, economy, and finance.

It is aimed at encouraging young people to read and have a higher sense of responsibility for the community.

During the fair, a book donation campaign will be launched together with the granting of insurance cards to disadvantaged female university students.

Exhibition deals with urban development

Manzi Art Space in collaboration with Art Viet Nam Gallery and Ha Noi Grapevine are to present a Nha Tay [Western Villa] Transforms exhibition featuring the latest works from artist scholars Nguyen The Son and Tran Hau Yen The.

In his previous art project Nha Mat Pho (Houses Facing the Street), Son addressed social issues stemming from rampant materialism in society, the discrepancy of wealth between the rich and the poor and the imposition of Western commodities on the people. In this latest series, the artist continues his research on the transformation of urban landscapes.

Fellow artist and researcher Yen The adds yet another historical layer to this discovery of life in Western villas. Following the maps and drawings of French intellectual Henri Oger, who from 1908-09 created more than 4,500 drawings of every aspect of the lives of inhabitants, The creates his own layer of analysis on the lifestyles of the inhabitants and the original façades of the villas.

The exhibition will open to the public at 6pm today and runs until October 29 at 14 Phan Huy Ich Street. Free entry.

Asian filmmakers revisit classic Westerns

Two major Asian adaptations of classic Westerns have hit screens at the Busan International Film Festival, in a revival of a genre that drew some of its early inspiration from the cinema of the East.

American-Vietnamese director Dustin Nguyen pictured during an interview with AFP at the Busan International Film Festival in South Korea on October 5, 2013

Japanese-Korean director Lee Sang-Il's "Unforgiven" is a remake of the 1992 Clint Eastwood classic of the same name, starring the Oscar-nominated Ken Watanabe.

"Once Upon a Time In Vietnam", directed by Vietnamese-American director Dustin Nguyen takes its inspiration from Sergio Leone's sprawling Spaghetti Western epic "Once Upon a Time in the West" from 1968.

Both films, which have been released in their domestic markets, played to packed cinemas this week at Busan. Lee said he believed it was the timeless nature and raw humanity explored in Westerns that continued to attract audiences.

"Every filmmaker loves them too," Lee said.

"They confront certain issues, the goodness and badness of people and that's what attracted me to this film."

Watanabe, who was Oscar-nominated for his role in "The Last Samurai" (2003), takes on the role of the ageing gun for hire played by Eastwood in the original. Director Lee has shifted the action from the Wild West to Hokkaido at the start of the Meiji period in Japan.

"It was the same time as Hollywood Westerns are set, around the late 1800s," said the director. "They were times of great change in both countries."

Lee said he had been inspired by the work of the Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, whose films such as "Yojimbo" (1961) had helped provide the source material for many Hollywood Westerns.

"That film was a huge influence on me, as was the way Kurosawa blended action with epic drama," said Lee.

"Yojimbo" was a key inspiration behind Leone's 1964 "A Fistful of Dollars" -- to the extent that the Italian director and his production company were eventually sued by Kurosawa's -- and starred Eastwood in the main role billed as "Man with No Name".

Watanabe revealed that Eastwood had voiced his support for the "Unforgiven" project when he first heard about the remake, and had sent a letter of praise for the production once he had seen it for himself.

"He said he liked what we had done," said the actor. "He said we had captured the mood he had set in the original. It is a Western but with Japanese style."

Actor-turned-director Nguyen grew up in the United States before moving back to Vietnam five years ago to start a production company. When it came to directing his first film there, he said he immediately turned to Leone.

"The Spaghetti Westerns had a big influence on me," he said. "So I had just been waiting for an opportunity to do something like that. It's nothing new but it is new for Vietnam."

The director echoed Watanabe in saying that the Western genre was primarily concerned with the issue of what it means to be a "real" man.

"I wanted to explore that, but I didn't want to make a drama that 10 people would come and see," said Nguyen, the one-time star of 1980s US television series "21 Jump Street".

"Once Upon a Time in Vietnam" takes the time-honoured Western tradition of a lone gun coming to the aid of a town under siege, updating the action with twists designed to appeal more to a modern audience.

"I've always liked the idea of a stranger coming to town," said Nguyen.

"There's just something romantic about it and fantastical about it. With Sergio Leone there was a very haunting quality he put on top of the classic American Western, a sense of longing."

To that end, Nguyen provides the audience with a hero riding off into the sunset but the director said he was looking to the Asian marketplace by including some martial arts and technical CGI wizardry.

"I'd like to see a few more of these films [from Asia]," he said. "As the film market grows I'd like to think more filmmakers can enter this genre.

"These films give us a chance to look at the struggles of humanity," he said.

"The characters help us question what is good and what is bad."

The Busan festival continues until Saturday.