Enjoy "Vision Party" by French and Vietnamese artists in Hanoi this month

More than 200 works by nine renowned local and foreign artists and photographers are on display in a trilogy of exhibitions titled "Vision Party" at the Vincom Center for Contemporary Art (VCCA) in Hanoi until June 25, 2023.

Curator Mai Nguyen Anh has transformed a photo from Hai Thanh’s “Place of Belonging” series into an interactive curtain to welcome the audience to his exhibition area.

Under the framework of the Photo Hanoi'23 - Biennale, three exhibitions titled "Robert Doisneau", "Revived" and "Place of Belonging" are running simultaneously, jointly organized by VCCA and the French Institute in Hanoi.

Each exhibition tells a different story about each artist, their way of practicing the art of photography, their methods of expression, and how they experienced life.

Born in 1912, Robert Doisneau is one of the most celebrated figures in modern photography. Throughout his long career, he has captured a wide range of subjects, often juxtaposing the conformist and the unconventional in photographs characterized by an excellent sense of humor, anti-establishment values, and profound humanism.

Today it is impossible to imagine a world without photography everywhere. Yet this is how Robert Doisneau began his work, in a place where he was told there was nothing to see, accumulating images chosen from the propositions of chance.

Through years of hard work, accompanied by impeccable rigor and unbridled imagination, Robert Doisneau left behind a collection of 450,000 photographs documenting the bustling life of the streets of Paris.

The 27 photographs on display are intended not only as a retrospective of the photographer but also as a portrait of a man in all the pivotal moments of his life, his times, and the practice of a profession that has changed and is being challenged today.

Meanwhile, visitors to the "Revived" exhibition are expected to admire the Internet's and social networks' rapid development over the past decade. With AI, more ideas and images are generated in human's daily lives without the need for a personal or intimate relationship.

Moreover, the desire to record, preserve memories, and tell stories has always been an enduring human desire that distinguishes them from other species. How do artists find strategies to immunize themselves from the overwhelming stock of images that dominate people's daily lives and remain true to their stories?

The photo taken by artist Hua Nhu Xuan is on display at the “Revived” exhibition

The invited artists use photography as a starting point to explore different ways of understanding oneself, understanding the world, exploring unconscious ways of thinking and imagining an image. Using various sources, including archival family photographs, documentation, performance, and installation, the artists in the exhibition not only slowly reveal their intimate histories, but also enable us to question our consumption of images.

Through more than 150 works on display, artists and photographers such as Nhu Xuan Hua, Nadia Cao, Hien Hoang, Serena Chang, Nguyen Thuy Tien, Kvet Nguyen, and Caroline Gervay have demonstrated different ways of understanding oneself, understanding the world, exploring thought patterns, and imagining an image of oneself.

Finally, the exhibition "Place of Belonging" by artist Hai Thanh (born in 1972) will allow viewers to reflect on the "place" we love. It may be a familiar landscape, a nostalgic moment, or a memory.

The photo was taken by artist Hai Thanh at the exhibition “Place of Belonging”

Artist Hai Thanh shared that he has an insatiable urge to photograph. For nearly 30 years, documenting and archiving has been a daily practice.

Nine years ago, Hai Thanh, who has always been in a constant state of flux, settled down, started a family, and moved to an unfamiliar city. A sense of displacement drives him to explore the notion of "home" personally, resulting in a thoughtful journey into parenthood.

Using images, Hai Thanh's endeavor provides viewers with an appropriate pretext to examine an intimate landscape, a nostalgic moment, and familiar memory; it was an invitation to look both inward and outward. These photographs are a beautiful tribute to family ties, with all the joy, complexity, and intricacy that they carry.

A visitor to the trilogy of exhibitions titled “Vision Party” at the Vincom Center for Contemporary Art in Hanoi. Photo: VCCA

The space of the trilogy of exhibitions. Photo: VCCA