A video-installation titled Green Earth has won first prize for artist Le Tran Hau Anh at the Viet Nam National Youth Fine Arts Festival.

Anh received the prize yesterday at Ha Noi’s Viet Nam Centre of Culture and Fine Arts. The installation involved screening his video on a sphere hanging in a black room.

The sphere and the room are covered with blue paper surrounded by stars which represent the sky and the earth.

Two windows in the room allow viewers to see vivid scenes in the sphere showing the effects of global warming.

“I want to remind the viewers about global climate change. I want to send a message that we have to respect and protect our home,” Anh said.

Anh said he was not just happy with the prize, but with creating a successful, interactive work of art.

“I’ve put many paper stars next to the installation for viewers to stick on the installation as stars, and one boy who stuck one on asked me if his star was real, it’s having a very interesting effect,” Anh said.

The festival has allowed young artists with a passion in contemporary and fine art to display their work, said critic Luong Xuan Doan.

“They are confident in showing what they want, and in forging a creative atmosphere here,” Doan said.

He also praised a work titled Feeling by Nguyen Van He which was awarded third prize.

The performance involves giving a rose to the female viewers to put in their mouth before he kisses the rose.

“The work by He is good, and he succeeds in connecting his emotions with the spectators,” Doan said.

“My love for women cannot be shown by words or colours – feeling is enough for me, I want people to feel the beauty of women through visual art,” He said.

In total, seventeen prizes were awarded by the festival organisers including one first prize, two runners-up prizes and four thirds prizes.

Second prizes went to graphics and sculpture works by Nguyen Quang Vinh and Tran Tuan Nghia and nearly 1,000 works competed for prizes across a number of disciplines including painting, graphics, sculpture and installation.

“We are happy to see a new generation of Vietnamese artists who are very creative and are finding their individual characteristics and the interaction of viewers and artists,” said Vi Kien Thanh, director of the culture ministry’s Department of Fine Arts, Photography and Exhibition.

Thanh also promised he would ask the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to organise the young fine arts festival every three years encouraging young artists between 18 and 35 years of age.

VNS