Focus on Arts and Ecology

October 29, 2020 

30 Oct – 20 Dec 2020
Nam Hương Communal House
73 Hàng Trống, Hanoi

From the organizer:

Inspired by the Hang Trong folk paintings that appeared and now slowly fading away right on this Hang Trong street that used to be old Tho Xuong district, the project “From tradition to tradition” is an effort to create dialogue and to continue writing on values of this traditional painting by using other Vietnamese traditional Painting medium, that is lacquer and silk.

The project is an opportunity for a group of students selected from the lacquer and silk major of the Painting Department, University of Fine Arts of Vietnam to interact , to study the technique , to absorb the love and passion for local culture from the last artist of the Hang Trong painting – artist Le Dinh Nghien.

Within one month, the students participating in the project had the opportunity to study directly from their practical experiences with artist Le Dinh Nghien and to propose creative options for the works inspired by Hang Trong paintings as well as being able to interact directly with the space of Nam Huong Communal House located on Hang Trong Street.

After the first 2 weeks display to kick off the project with an exciting dialogue between Hang Trong paintings by artist Le Dinh Nghien and replicas of folk painting exercises by students in lacquer major. This second exhibition is an improvised and completely new work within 3 weeks working in two lacquer and silk studios under the guidance of professors Trieu Khac Tien and Nguyen The Son. Each work in this exhibition is an improvisational plan, from works with design trends to highly interactive experimental works containing reflections on the legacy of traditional culture in modern life.

Hopefully, with a display period of nearly 2 months, this exhibition will be able to stimulate the interest of young people as well as the community with vital issues of cultural heritages value in general as well as Hang Trong folk art in particular.

At the same time, it also arouses love and appreciation for not only Vietnamese traditional cultural heritages but also for other cultures and ethnic groups, when the next part of this project will connect to the cultural heritage of traditional Japanese woodblock printing. It will be improvised with traditional Vietnamese materials such as lacquer and silk medium which will take place next year.
This exhibition is also an opportunity to encourage and honor the individual work of students, young artists on their path of independent creativity ahead, always interested in traditional cultural heritage values. , local culture to incorporate into artistic practices, continue to write new creative values. It is also a way of preserving and promoting the values of heritage in a more creative way.

Curator
Nguyễn Thế Sơn

(Sources: Hanoi Grapevine)