UK Contemporary Dance “Without Stars”

Hanoi: Wed 22 Oct 2014, 8 pm

Youth Theatre

11 Ngo Thi Nham Str, Hanoi

HCMC: 25 and 26 Oct 2014, 8 pm

IDECAF

31 Thai Van Lung, Dist 1, HCMC

Without Stars and There We Have Been, two dance productions which were inspired by Haruki Murakami’s novel Norwegian Wood, will be performed in Vietnam on 22, 25 and 26 October. Organised by the British Council Vietnam, this is part of the East Asia tour of the acclaimed James Cousins dance company.

James Cousins and his dancers will hit the Youth Theatre in Hanoi in a one-night-only show on 22 October; they will then bring their productions to IDECAF stage on 25 and 26.

A graduate of London Contemporary Dance School, James Cousins founded the dance company in 2012 with creative producer Francesca Moseley to explore new ideas with his team of collaborators and to tour his critically acclaimed productions throughout the UK and internationally. Also in 2012, James Cousins won the inaugural Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures Choreography Award. James Cousins has recognised by Time Out magazine as one of the future faces of dance.

Apart from staged performances, James Cousins and his dancers will deliver a dance workshop with choreographers and dancer students at the Vietnam’s Military University of Culture and Arts on 23 October.

Without Stars and There We Have Been are two touching and emotionally charged pieces of work with intense folding, wrapping and balancing. They were created based on the inspiration from the troubled relationships beautifully portrayed in the novel Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami. Below is how There We Have Been was beautifully reviewed by Laura Dodge for Londondance.com.

“In low lighting, dancer the female dancer was held constantly off the floor by her male partner. She was supported through all manner of poses from high leg extensions to seated embraces and wrapping her body around her companion.

“Always progressing fluidly but with varying speed of movement, the couple’s relationship was open to infinite viewer interpretations, but the female’s dependence on the male was unrelenting. The piece reached a haunting end as the female fragile figure hovered in the air, gesturing towards her partner and he walked away, finally free.

“It was simply one of the most stunning contemporary dance pieces I have ever seen. So mesmerising, its 20-minute length passed by in what seemed like seconds.”

Cherry Gough, Country Director, British Council Vietnam said: ‘We’re delighted to be bringing the best of British contemporary dance to Vietnamese audiences. James Cousins is a graduate of the London School of Contemporary Dance, and is widely considered to be one of the brightest new stars of contemporary dance in the UK. We hope audiences in Vietnam will be both entertained and inspired by this beautiful and thought-provoking performance.

Tickets

Ticket prices: 100,000 and 200,000 VND

Tickets are available to be purchased now:

- Hanoi: at the Youth Theatre (11 Ngo Thi Nham)

Hotline for booking and delivery: 04. 2.2409025

- Ho Chi Minh City: at IDECAF (31 Thai Van Lung, Dist.1) or HCM Ballet Symphony and Orchestra (HBSO) (7 Cong Truong Lam Son, Dist.1)

Hotline for booking and delivery: 098 987 4517 and 0903 041959

Exhibition “Ambiguity | Affitta” by Artist Pham Tuan Tu

Opening: Sat 18 Oct 2014, 5.30 pm

Exhibition: 18 – 27 Oct 2014

Nguyen Art Gallery

No 31A Van Mieu road, Hanoi

ACCAviet cordially presents a piece of solo exhibition of painter Pham Tuan Tu named “Ambiguity | Affitta”.

What is AFFITTA?

AFFITTA is an Italian word used for imperative. AFFITTA means “FOR RENT” and Ambiguity in Vietnamese expresses a state of vagueness and being unclear, half this side and the other half in the other side. This tends to lead to chaos and disorder.

Why do the exhibition named AMBIGUITY | AFFITTA?

This is a solo show of artist Pham Tuan Tu. This exhibition includes nearly 40 paintings through almost seven years of the artist’s creative activities since 2008 up to present.

The artworks of Pham Tuan Tu all carry the cold grey color tone. The shapes in the works are absentminded and aimless. It seems like them don’t need any connection with the earth. The body and the head are like the two opposing essences. A borrowed head for a body or a naked body is renting another head. Everything seems to be mellow and unable to identify. The borderlines between the owner and the renter are erased. The state of renting becomes the state of ambiguity. There’s no distinction between the borders of genders, space and spirit.

Looking at Tuan Tu’s works, it is not merely considered from the gender perspective. The ambiguity of appearance, inner soul, gender, spirituality is a part of his creative process but not necessary as the most important factor. This factor is borrowed and used through the empowering language of the arts. With the style mixed between irony, arrogance and solidarity, he wanted to tell the stories between human beings. It could be very humane, cold or mournful. With his works which are full of emotions in life journey, one individual journey, the fate and spirituality through the physical living time. The coldness or indifference are all the laws of heaven and earth.

There are some comments by painter Pham Quang Hieu – a closed friend of Pham Tuan Tu:

“…Seeing the works of Tu, we could easily associate with the horror films from Hollywood or the book “Strange stories from a Chinese Studio” by Pu Songling. The plaintive lyrics of Pham Duy are echoing somewhere else: “The afternoon goes by quietly/ The flowers and the graves are fading/ Oh the white flower color of the funeral? I want to do the ceremony for your broken love…in a late winter I went to the pagoda/ To say farewell to you my darling in this coffin…!

…Deviating from the normal trajectory of aesthetics, he uses symbols and true feelings. Pham Tuan Tu has brought us into a world where the black-white, good-evil, male-female… is not really to differentiate. Even the artist tried to attach the theme to a certain social issue, but in an unconscious manner. Tu’s works still placed before us a more fundamental question about the human nature and human being.”

“Ambiguity – Affitta” exhibition is the first solo exhibition by Pham Tuan Tu in Vietnam, though a number of his works have been presented and displayed at the National Fine Arts Exhibition 2010, the Dogma Prize in Hochiminh City in 2013 and National Festival of Young Artists in 2014 in Hanoi.

“Ambiguity – Affitta” will be opened at 05:30 P.M, Saturday October 18th 2014 at the Nguyen Art gallery, 31A Van Mieu St., Hanoi and will be showcased until the end of October 27th 2014.

This event is made possible thanks to generous supports from Danish Cultural Development and Exchange Fund in Vietnam (CDEF).

Book Launch “Art and Talent”

Book launch and expert talk: Thu 23 Oct 2014, 7 pm

Goethe-Institut Hanoi, 56-58 Nguyễn Thái Học, Ba Đình, Hà Nội

Art and Talent, a foreground on the 8X contemporary artists generation of Vietnam, is the second publication in Mrs Dao Mai Trang’s book project on the visual art life in Vietnam. Her first publication was published in 2010, 12 contemporary artists of Vietnam, in Vietnamese and English, under the license of The Gioi Publishing House and with the financial support of the Cultural Development and Exchange Fund (CDEF), the Dannish Embassy in Hanoi.

The manuscript of Art and Talent was developed from her research essay commissioned by Culture and Arts Magazine, from 2010 to 2012. Then, she corrected and completed as a book manuscript with about 150 images of art works by young artists in all over Vietnam, seeking for financial support for English translation, continuing her independent publication project.

Her project is continously granted by CDEF and particularly by the Goethe Institute Hanoi for her Vietnamese printed version. The English version of the book in this project was specially revised by Mr John Kleinen, Ph.D, Associate Professor Emritus, Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR), the Netherlands and Mrs Raquelle Azran, an American writer, who has been keeping connection with Vietnamese art life for more than 20 years. In particular, the project was supported by many galleries, art studios, art spaces and young artists for their images of art works.

From 7pm, October, 23rd, 2014 (Thursday), the Goethe Institute Hanoi and Ms Dao Mai Trang will co-host the book launch at the Institute grand hall. The program with participations of many young artists and art critics, researchers and art lovers will be an open discussion about the real situation of ?and hopes for the development of Vietnamese visual art.

The book contents in brief:

It includes two chapters and the section of introduction of nine artists

Chapter 1: The social context: speaks of external advantages and disadvantages which have been influencing on the artistic creativity of artists born in the early 1980s (1980 – 1985) as the 8X generation, such as fast changes in the social life, the impacts of the market economy to the art creativity, the environment of art education, the upset of social and cultural values, etc. The author tries to analyze and to evaluate impact of every social aspect to art creativity of young artists.

Chapter 2: Major problems to the 8X artists generation: Finance and Talent and according to the author, talent must be seen as the essence. The author gives out suggestions for realizing more clearly the artistic stuff of the 8X artists generation. The book is open to any conclusion and the author does hope that each reader will take his own conclusion answering to the question: why Vietnamese cultural life in general, its art life in particular, has been facing to the risk of lagging behind other countries in the region and in the world.

Nine artists in the author’s interest: Nguyen Huy An, Bang Nhat Linh, Thai Nhat Minh, Nguyen Phuong Linh, Thai Nhat Minh, Le Hoang Bich Phuong, Ha Manh Thang, Pham Huy Thong, Vu Duc Toan, Vu Duc Trung. The author is interested in their art journeys because she has found that they are distinguished and different to others in their same generation.

Details of the publication:

The English version is published only under the eBook platform, licensed by Literature Publishing House with about 150 images of art works and art spaces in all over the country. It will be distributed on Hanoi Grapevine.

The Vietnamese version is printed (500 copies, at size 22.3×17.3cm, hard covered, 248 pages, colored on couche matt paper with about 150 images of art works and art spaces, price: 350,000.00 VND, licensed by Women Publishing House).

Dao Mai Trang has been working as the editor for the fine arts column, Culture and Arts Magazine (the voice of the Ministry of Culture and Arts of Vietnam) since 2000. She has been writing many articles and interviewing Vietnamese and foreign artists for Culture and Arts Magazine (www.vhnt.org.vn); Sports and Culture News (www.thethaovanhoa.vn); Soi (www.soi.com.vn); Nhandan News (www.nhandan.com.vn).

Science Film Festival 2014

Science Film Festival: 24 Oct – 14 Dec 2014

in 13 cities & provinces

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IN HANOI:

Opening: Fri 24 Oct 2014

Lomonoxop School My Dinh

Khu do thi My Dinh 2, Nam Tu Liem, Hanoi

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Film screening: Sun 26 Oct 2014, 2 pm

Kim Dong Cinema

19 Hang Bai, Hanoi

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Activity days: 08 – 09 Nov, 9 am – 5 pm

Goethe-Institut Hanoi

56-58 Nguyễn Thái Học

Ba Đình, Hà Nội

The tenth edition of the Science Film Festival for children and adolescents sets the look onto the future and asks: What technology will shape the world of tomorrow? Every day we see new scientific discoveries and technological innovations. What was unimaginable yesterday is already reality today. The media teaches us new words like android, synthetic biology and quantum computers – all of which are concept that used to be subjects for experts and scientists, but soon will influence our daily life and the world we live in. In this fast changing times it becomes harder to keep up with all the various developments. What promises do these new technologies offer and what dangers come with them?

At the Science Film Festival presented by the Goethe Institute twelve nations from Southeast Asia, North Africa and the Middle East show various films and TV shows from all over the world that give fascinating insights into the technological innovations of today and tomorrow.

For the fourth time Vietnam takes part in the Science Film Festival. The opening will take place at the Lomonossow primary school in Hanoi on the 24th October. Two days later, on the 26th October, there will be a film screening with a lot of activities for children and parents at the Kim Dong Cinema. On both events visitors can experience the topic of technologies of the future with short films, hands on experiments and games. Until the 14th December the programs will be screened in thirteen different places (Hanoi, Vinh Phuc, Phu Tho, Thai Binh, Da Nang, Hue, Hoi An, Tam Ky, Quang Nam, Dak Lak, TP. HCM, Bac Lieu, Da Lat).

For the Activity Days on the 8th and 9th November all children, adolescents and adults are invited to the Goethe Institute to join in and discover science and technology with their own hands.

“That’s New – What’s Next” – Graphic Art Exhibition of Benjamin Badock

Opening: Thu 09 Oct 2014, 6 pm

Exhibition: 10 Oct – 02 Nov 2014

Goethe-Institut Hanoi

56-58 Nguyễn Thái Học

Ba Đình, Hà Nội

The Goethe-Institut presents Benjamin Badock, one of the most seminal and original graphic artists in Germany, with a selection of 34 works on paper. Benjamin Badock is the third artist to receive the artist residency grant from the Cultural Foundation of Saxony for Vietnam. In December 2014, Benjamin Badock will be awarded the prestigious Sprengel award in Germany for his artistic oevre.

You could always know more about Benjamin through his two artist talk in Hanoi and HCMC

Benjamin Badock was born in Karl-Marx-Stadt (now Chemnitz) in 1974. He studied art at the Eesti Kunstiakadeemia in Tallinn, Estonia, and at the Braunschweig Academy of Fine Arts (2001 – 2008). He was a master student of Professor Olav Christopher Jenssen in 2009. The artist lives in Leipzig. He was recently awarded the Sprengel Prize for Visual Arts 2014 by the Lower Saxony Sparkassen Foundation.

Free entrance.

Sculpture Showcase “New Form: Sculpture – Architecture – Space”

Opening: Fri 10 Oct 2014, 2 pm

Exhibition: 10 Oct – 04 Nov 2014

Manzi Art Space

14 Phan Huy Ich, Hanoi    

Artists: Phạm Thái Bình, Thái Nhật Minh, Khổng Đỗ Tuyền, Hoàng Mai Thiệp

Curator: Nguyễn Anh Tuấn

Manzi Art Space and New Form sculpture group cordially presents a piece of experimental sculpture named “New Form: Sculpture – Architecture – Space”. The exhibition is an activity in New Form project phase II, 2014 – 2015.

NEW FORM is an experimental sculpture project, which aims to overcome stereotypes of traditional sculpture and to open up new directions in thinking and creative possibilities of this art form. NEW FORM was founded by sculptors living and working in Hanoi with the desire to develop their career and to find new creative directions as well as experience a professional working environment.

In phase II, New Form project aims towards the connection of sculpture works with architectural living space in reality. The dialogue characteristics between the artworks are placed in the communicative ability with architecture, interior, and usage of that space. This dialogue has created special challenges when sculptures aren’t just dealing with its traditional inner relation such as shapes, materials, surfaces, colours, and aesthetics… but also with the correlation between sculpture and architectural space in the shape and function. This has to do with the environment, light, air, time, weather, the available context, and the changeable context as well as with the viewers’ behaviours and attitude to arts. When art isn’t just purely for the visual satisfying display, art has transformed into an intervention, intrusion and being parallel with movements, feelings, psychologies in everyday life activities. Sculpture, therefore, needs to be more active in their presence in the chosen space, how to integrate into that space as well as the on-going challenges because of the living space’s continuous operational characteristics. It isn’t simply just a traditional static fixed dead space.

The works of Thai Nhat Minh is a sculpture experiments with its role to connect the current space with the concept. Minh tries to find the connection between the inner and outer space, interior and exterior space by implementing at the gallery’s windows. The sculptural shapes were pressed flat and shown in a reflective material. The space in and outside interfered through the gaps of the window frames creating a visible visual connection for the audience. The artist wants to use this dialogue to open suggestions and questions about space and the space connection between inside and outside, between the reflective illusion reality, between the limited physical space and the imaginative conceptual space.

The showcase of Pham Thai Binh took inspiration form the strong influence of architecture and modern design language to sculpture. Leaving the sculptures based on fixed forms, the works of Binh has developed towards site-specific installations and modularity. The leaf-formed-pieces are arranged from the main wall of the fireplace to the gallery ceiling. It aims to explore flexibility and diversity ability in the combination of sculpture and architecture. This actually exists inside the sculpture itself.

Khong Do Tuyen continues to deploy the art direction of combining the rope structure from phase I. Following this way; he uses the ropes to create the structure of the space. Tuyen uses the walls, windows and the entire gallery ceiling as the space for sculpture. The artist’s experiment expanded the sculpture possibility. It isn’t just integrating but also changing the architecture space and also shows the connection between architecture space and sculpture space can be a unified piece. This new language surely has the influence from the modern architecture structure, industrial design but sill keeps the vibe spirit of traditional creative sculpture.

Sculptor Hoang Mai Thiep shows a piece of sculpture combining with site-specific installation. Having the inspiration from the family tree – the popular family genealogy in rural life, Thiep uses the wooden blocks in many different sizes to mount on the large walls of the room. The blocks are arranged in an alternative and overlapping way beside the portrait reliefs of the rural men and women or just empty reliefs. The conceptual elements of the work is expressed through the installation of the blocks in a random way, the empty and solid of each block, as well as the ambition to show the complex content through the sculpture language. And it also wants to embrace the connection ability of sculpture and other architectural spaces. `

The participation of Pham Dam Ca brought graphical solution for the showcase of the sculptures. They aren’t just present with the auxiliary function for the sculptures. The graphic language of Dam Ca goes along with the works in the spirit of a specialized graphic solution for the art exhibition, which continued to develop from New Form exhibition I (2013). The shapes-arrays-lines, which were expressed in the logo of the project in phase I, are now dissected to intentionally independent fragmented segments and pieces. This is a concise expression in visual and graphic language in parallel to the development of sculpture form and space.

To understand in a simple way, architecture is a work of creating spaces to serve the function of human lives. However, architecture isn’t just the physical space with the divided spaces of specific function. That is also the structure of human lives such as space structure, thinking structure, relationship structure or aesthetic structure. When sculpture starts to find a way to intervene, intrude in that space, it is not only the process of seeking and adapting with architecture but it has the ability to shift, change or even redefine architecture spaces by its visual elements and time concept. When architecture has oriented more and more to the universality in public space, uniqueness in small and medium spaces with its own meanings, sculpture also needs to shift and change to bring out the suggestions. That is the objective of New Form project and the spirit of this exhibition.

This event is made possible with the generous support from Danish Cultural Development and Exchange Fund in Vietnam (CDEF).

Exhibition “Not Quite Landscapes” at Dong Phong Gallery

Exhibition: 12 Oct – 12 Nov 2014

Dong Phong Art Gallery

03 Ly Dao Thanh Street

Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi

Artist Vu Duc Trung will once again present lacquer-art to his admirers at the solo exhibition “Not Quite Landscapes” opening at Dong Phong Art Gallery in Hanoi on 12th October 2014. Vu Duc Trung last exhibited his lacquer works at the solo exhibition But is it landscapes in 2012.

We perceive nature to be an endless source for the themes that the artist uses and renews again and again. He creates various points of view that allow us to delve deep into the sensation of space and time and the objects that revolve around them.

In Vu Duc Trung’s work, nature is rendered using traditional methods of lacquer painting to produce an array of colours in which shapes and figures have been eliminated. The permutations of forms and pallets are done with such proficiency that the paintings become akin to a leisurely walk. Vu Duc Trung does not coerce the viewer into views of preconceived forms, but rather lets them experience a carefree and pleasing sense of nature between heaven and earth.

Looking at his paintings, do we not sometimes get a clear sensation of emptiness, of soullessness, even of desolation and coldness? Are these the perceptions of the viewer or do they also reflect the artist’s state of mind?

The most striking feature of this exhibition is the round lacquer boards on which all the paintings are made. Is it true that the artist “binds” landscapes into specific shapes so that they become not quite landscapes? They imply a deeper sense of the finite and infinite …

Exhibition “Minimal Asian” to Celebrate Twelve Years of Module 7

Exhibition: 18 Oct – 09 Nov 2014, 9 am – 7 pm

Module 7

83 Xuan Dieu Str, Tay Ho, Hanoi

Founded in 2002, Module 7 is a leading company in interior design consultancy in Hanoi with many innovative products pursuing their own style of simplicity, sophistication, elegance inspired by Asian cultural essence.

The design of Module 7 is the seamless combination of contemporary design and Vietnamese cultural essence. Products are designed and made in traditional craft villages across the country. Each item holds long-standing cultural values of traditional artisanal know-how with a resonance of modernity.

On October 18th, we are going to hold a 12 year celebration with an interior exhibition titled “Minimal Asian” by designer and founder of Module 7 Pham Kieu Phuc.

A dozen year celebration is also an occasion for us to express and share our passion and vocation in preserving and raising the value of handicraft production methods using local materials such as: woods, ceramics, bronze, bamboo and lacquer. You are also invited to the whole aspect and insight of our works, from products development process to interior design projects as well as skillful craftsman portraits through video clip made by our team.

To Phạm Kiều Phúc, designer and founder of Module 7, contemplating to express not only the form but the hidden spirit of Asian decor is an exciting challenge, an open road that she has an opportunity to work in the present context where the craftsmanship is rich but lacks of competitiveness due to the absence of a suitable design thinking.

“Good design, to my mind, is the realization of a concept in which all the details are justified, where everything is necessary but there is no excess, where the function perfectly suits the context that give born to the idea. Our conical hat is a typical example.

There are my guides in creating objects and interior design. I am inspired by the serenity I have felt working with craftsmen and reflecting on their work. I do all I can to instill the knowledge they have given me into every object or piece of furniture I make. My final products are no longer mere craft objects, they always contain a core of tradition.”

Exhibition “Information Transmitted by Horse Riding”

Opening: Tue 30 Sep 2014, 6 pm

Exhibition: 30 Sep - 26 Oct/2014

L’Espace

24 Tràng Tiền, Hà Nội

At first glance, the exhibition is merely a herd of seven horses calmly grazing in a meadow. If we look more closely, these horses are carefully crafted from Boi papers, a Vietnamese traditional material, and are covered with randomly arranged pictures conveying meaningful life lessons. Is social media network gradually dominating our life? Transmitting information by horse riding enables us to search for information, screen and make them ours. But most importantly, it allows us to live more slowly.

Free entrance.