Art of embroidery on show

Single-thread: Handmade embroidery pieces are on display at the From a Stroke to a Thread exhibition by French artist Lionel Descostes. — VNS Photos Truong Vi

HA NOI — An exhibition presenting the work of French embroidery artist Lionel Descostes has opened at L'Espace, the French cultural centre in Ha Noi.

The exhibition, entitled From a Stroke to a Thread, showcases 40 handmade embroidery pieces on taffeta, made using a single-thread technique and the result of eight years' work by Descostes in Viet Nam.

"For me, eight years was a long process of fatigue and pressure," said Descostes. "But I love Vietnamese embroidery and always wanted to do something to preserve this traditional craft."

Descostes studied visual art and technique in France and decided to live in Viet Nam to pursue his love for the nation's traditional embroidery. He also hired hearing-impaired girls from local vocational training centres and trained them for six-nine months to do embroidery.

"The paintings represent my collective work with these Vietnamese girls, whom I found to be very talented and skillful embroiderers," said Descost at the exhibition opening.

He expressed the view that traditional embroidery could find its place within contemporary art and said that the exhibition would open a new vision for visitors on an popular but little understood artform.

The exhibition runs until March 4 at 24 Trang Tien Street, Ha Noi. — VNS

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Cai luong artist marks 30 years

Old school: Cai luong artist Kim Tu Long (left) poses with actress Thoai My. Long will celebrate his 30-year career by a live performance in HCM City this week. — VNS File Photo

HCM CITY — Cai luong (reformed theatre) artist Kim Tu Long will mark the 30th anniversary of his career with a live performance in HCM City this week.

Thien Duong Cua Toi (My Paradise) will feature extracts from cai luong plays that helped him achieve fame – including Day Song Bach Dang Giang (Waves in the Bach Dang River), and Nang Tien Mau Don (Peony Fairy).

Long, also the show's director, said it offered him a chance to achieve his dream of "paradise" – or, as he described it, an ideal theatre show where several performances were staged in the best possible conditions and actors work hard.

Long, real name Hoang Kim Long, will be joined by Thoai My, Phuong Hang, Trong Nghia, and Que Tran for the show.

Comedians Hoai Linh and Bao Quoc, and singers Cam Ly and Phi Nhung will be special guests.

Day Song Bach Dang Giang will not be a solo effort. Instead, Long will collaborate with young director Vu Minh, and the play will feature nearly 150 dancers.

Long, born in Sai Gon (now HCM City) in 1966, developed an interest in cai luong at 14. He learned to sing vong co (nostalgic tunes), a traditional southern art form, and perform cai luong from Vuong Quang and the late People's Artist Phung Ha.

In 1985, he was a member of Tran Huu Trang Troupe 3, one of the region's leading cai luong performers. His strong voice and dance skills quickly made an impression on audiences.

In 1992, he won the prestigious Tran Huu Trang Award given to promising cai luong artists.

He also won the Nguoi Lao Dong (The Labourer) newspaper's Mai Vang (Golden Ochna) Award for Favourite Cai Luong Actor in 2002, 2003, and 2009.

Thien Duong Cua Toi will be staged at the Hoa Binh Theatre in HCM City on Friday and Saturday. — VNS

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HCM City bicycle race gets facelift

HCM CITY — Ten years after it was first held, the Sai Gon Cyclo Challenge has been rejigged and will be organised in its new format at the Phu My Hung Urban Area in HCM City on March 12.

Cycle Challenge Version 2.0 aims to raise US$30,000 to help provide education to poor children.

The race at the Crescent will be open only to platinum and gold sponsors under the new format.

There will be eight of them – VinaCapital Group's VinaLiving, Adidas, HSBC, Hoang Long Hoan Vu, Jardines, Megastar, Halliburton, and VNG, the sole platinum sponsor.

It will be a relay race featuring four riders in each team, with the top three teams qualifying for the finals.

"It is like Formula 1 for cyclos," director of Sai Gon Children Charity (SCC), Paul Finnis, told a press conference on Thursday.

"We hope the HCM City community will join us for an exciting morning of racing and, in the process, help provide education for children," Finnis added.

An online campaign was launched on Thursday, with SCC partnering Zing Me, Viet Nam's largest social network, to launch a new version of Parking Challenge, one of the most popular games on Zing Me.

SCC will use the money raised through the race to support disadvantaged children in HCM City and the southern provinces of Dong Nai, Tay Ninh, Tien Giang, Tra Vinh, and Binh Phuoc.

Since 2001 it has raised $500,000 for building schools and providing scholarships and vocational training, enabling more than 3,500 children to equip themselves with the skills necessary to work their way out of poverty. — VNS

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Piano's journal at Opera House offers glimpse into life

Trang Trinh

Young pianist Trang Trinh will perform her “The Piano's journal” show featuring Chopin, Beethoven, Mozart and other famous composers in Hanoi this Wednesday and Ho Chi Minh City this April.

The show in Hanoi’s opera house at 8pm at 1 Trang Tien Street is designed to display passions in a person’s life cycle from innocence of a child to pain in love and sadness and wisdom in separation, expressed in classical and romantic styles.

Song without word (Mendelsshon), Salut d’amour (Edgar) and the complete three-chapter Moonlight Sonata (Beethoven) will take audience a tour around various human emotions.

Born in 1986 in Vinh Phuc Province, Trang Trinh has just graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in the UK.

She has been invited to work for the London-based All Souls Orchestra, and she has had various performance tours in Italy, Austria, Hungary and Ireland.

In 2007, she won the Francis Simmer Prize for playing solo piano, and the Lilian Davis Prize for her performance of Beethoven‘s Sonatas.

One year later, she was awarded the Gretta GM Parkinson Prize for her outstanding academic records.

Tickets are available at the Opera House at VND300,000, VND500,000 and VND1 million.

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Bob Dylan’s show to tribute legendary Trinh Cong Son

There will be an hour tribute to the legendary song-writer Trinh Cong Son in Bob Dylan’s show scheduled to take place in Ho Chi Minh City-based Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University (RMIT) on April 10.

Trinh Cong Son has been dubbed the “Vietnamese Bob Dylan” for his anti-war songs.

He is widely considered one of the most salient figures of modern Vietnamese music with more than 600 compositions. April 1 this year will commemorate the 10th anniversary of his death.

Bob Dylan’s show organizers have contacted Son’s family to prepare for the tribute. However, the famous American singer-songwriter will likely not perform any of Trinh Cong Son’s songs or music, according to newswire Dat Viet.

“Currently we cannot say anything for certain as everything is still under preparation and we’re in the process of trying to obtain the permit,” said Nguyen Trung Truc, Son’s brother in law.

This is no confirmation from RMIT yet. However, Bob Dylan’s show promises to be a spectacular performance set up by his own crew.

The Minnesota-originated Bob Dylan dropped out of school and went to New York to pursue his dream of becoming a music professional. At age 20, he was signed to Columbia Records and his career started to take off.

Dylan has both amplified and personalized musical genres, exploring numerous distinct traditions in American music—from folk, blues and country to gospel, rock and roll, and rockabilly, to English, Scottish, and Irish folk music, embracing even jazz and swing.

He was listed among 100 most influential people of the 20th century by the Time Magazine in 1999.

“Clean Cut Kid” and “Masters of War” are two songs he wrote about the Vietnam War.

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Water buffalo, not bull, fights in Vietnam

Different from bull fighting in Spain where the animals are trained for the specific job, fighting water-buffalos in Vietnam are not professional fighters as they perform their daily job of ploughing on rice field.

They are only turned out to be fighters for a couple of days during festivals held in the first month of a year on lunar calendar for entertainment.

Traditionally, buffalo fighting in Vietnam was originated from annual contest to select strongest animals for ploughing in villages, said culture researcher Tran Ngoc Them.

The tradition has been observed till now and so, fights are held at different venues in the nation in the season of festivals during the first lunar month.

Arena for such a fight is an open place on rice field after harvest, or in the middle of stadium. It is rimmed by a low hedge made by wooden sticks available in rural places.

Only two fighting buffalos and their owners are allowed to step into the arena. Viewers stand outside.

Following are images of a buffalo fight in Hai Luu Commune in the northern province of Vinh Phuc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 After knocking out rival, the winning buffalo will be blinded with the flag available at the fight to cool down his rage before taking the tame animal home

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Photo show explores Mexico

Intensely Mexico: Photos on display at the National Library of Viet Nam introduce traditions and places in Mexico.

HA NOI — A photo exhibition, Mexico, Country of Colours, opens in Ha Noi today, hosted by the Mexican Embassy.

The exhibition is by author and photographer Ricardo Espinosa and features 30 large photos (1.2m by 1.7m) taken during the past 10 years.

The exhibition allowed viewers to feel the intensity and the power of the natural scenery, monuments, architecture, art, festivals and the popular traditions of Mexico, said Mexican Embassy charge d'Affairs Sergio Rivadeneyra Martell.

Espinosa was born in Mexico City in 1958, studied Graphic Design in the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana in Mexico City and worked in photography for more than 25 years.

He has been professor of photography in the Universidad Iberoamericana since 1985.

Espinosa does corporate, advertisement and commercial photography and is director of Spanish-language photography portals: www.antecamara.com.mx. His work has been shown in numerous exhibitions in Mexico.

"The panoramic photography work I have been doing for the last 10 years is mainly focused on interior and exterior spaces in Mexico," Espinosa said.

"I do not see it only as a record of the landscape or description of these places, but also as the portrait of inner personal landscapes.

The archaeology, the deserts, the shorelines, the mountains are somehow self portraits, moods and spiritual searching," he said in a statement.

The photos have been exhibited in South Korea, Ulan Bator, Shanghai and Tokyo, Sydney and Singapore.

The colours of Mexico will be on show at the National Library of Viet Nam, 31 Trang Thi Street, Ha Noi, until next Friday.

Also on the occasion, a book collection of literature and academic works by Mexican artists and scholars will be presented to the National Library of Viet Nam through the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs. — VNS

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