Big exhibition commemorates Dien Bien Phu Victory

Jenna Duong

Apr 18, 2024 / 04:14 PM

Using a wealth of artistic language, veteran Vietnamese artists have powerfully portrayed the struggle against the French invaders during the famous Dien Bien Phu Campaign that shocked the globe.

The Road to Dien Bien exhibition, celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Dien Bien Phu Victory (May 7, 1954 - 2024), will be held at the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum in Hanoi from April 26 to May 15.

The oil painting entitled Tieng Hat Giua Mua Chien Dich or Singing on the Battlefield by painter Mai Van Hien, 1994.

The exhibition features 70 paintings, graphic works, sculptures, sketches and posters created between 1949 and 2009 by 34 authors selected by the organizing committee from the museum's collection.

According to a representative of the Museum of Fine Arts, the exhibition will combine the use of interactive cinemagraph projection technology, allowing viewers to experience moments from the Dien Bien Phu battlefield in 1954.

Highlights of the exhibition include To Vinh Dien Chen Phao (To Vinh Dien Uses His Body to Brake Artillery Piece) and Keo Phao (Pulling Artillery Piece) by Duong Minh Huong; Viet Bac by Dao Duc; the Ca Nuoc Ra Tran (The Whole Country Goes to the Battlefield) by Luu Danh Thanh; Tinh Quan Dan or Love Between Soldiers and People by Nguyen Sang, among others.

As part of the exhibition, there will be two talks, "Road to Dien Bien" on April 27 and "Memories of Painter and Martyr To Ngoc Van" on May 11.

To Ngoc Van's sketch Chuan Bi Di Cho or Preparing for a Resupply Mission.

To Ngoc Van (1906-1954) was one of the leading artists of Vietnam's modern fine arts and a graduate of the Indochina Fine Arts College. He was also the first Vietnamese rector of the Fine Arts College established in the resistance zone in Viet Bac in 1950 during the anti-French resistance war (1946-1954).

Through a series of Van's sketches such as Deo Lung Lo or Lung Lo Pass; Bo Doi Nghi Trong Hang or Soldiers Resting in a Cave; Chuan Bi Di Cho or Preparing for a Resupply Mission; and Hoan Ho or Joyful Applause after Victory, the fighting and the lives of Vietnamese soldiers and people were vividly depicted.

The exhibition aims to honor and pay tribute to those who sacrificed their blood and lives for the cause of national liberation and reunification, and to inculcate patriotic and revolutionary heroism and the will to fight and win inspired by the spirit of the Dien Bien Phu Victory.

Attack on Dien Bien Phu Middle Field, Nguyen The Vy, oil painting, 1966.

Dien Bien Phu, a garrison 350 kilometers from Hanoi in a remote valley near the Lao border, was the scene of one of the most important battles of the 20th century.

In late 1953, the French established a stronghold here, manned by 13,000 Vietnamese and North African colonial troops, as well as the battle-hardened troops of the French army and its elite Foreign Legion - all of whom were routed by the Viet Minh, sending the French packing from Southeast Asia.

A great inspiration to the nations of the Third World, the battle at Dien Bien Phu showed that a determined peasant army could bring a major colonial power to its knees.