At this year's Mid-Autumn Festival, the G39 artist group continues to introduce the capital's art-loving public to its annual exhibition, Moon Season.

In addition to paintings by famous artists, the exhibition also features the participation of young people from the Spring Color Painting Club and artisan Nguyen Van Tinh from the bamboo and rattan weaving village of Phu Vinh, Hanoi, who together created an installation work called Tower of Light.

Tower of Light combines artworks by craftsman Nguyen Van Tinh and children. Photo: Ngo Minh/The Hanoi Times

The work consists of 60 lanterns of various shapes, made in the bamboo and rattan weaving village of Phu Vinh, Hanoi. The village is located in Chuong My district, about 30km southwest of central Hanoi. From generation to generation, the people of Phu Vinh Village have maintained a deep connection with bamboo and rattan, mastering the trade and understanding the unique properties of these plants. 

Phu Vinh is celebrated for producing high quality bamboo and rattan wickerwork products in a dazzling variety of styles and designs. These include household utensils and furniture, decorations, and souvenir and gift items.

Craftsman Nguyen Van Tinh has more than 50 years of experience in the art and has trained many young craftsmen. As the owner of Viet Quang Rattan and Bamboo Wickerwork Company, one of the oldest workshops in the village, Tinh believes that the love for their craft and appreciation for their creations stem from the enduring tradition of the village.

Painter Le Thiet Cuong, curator of the exhibition, believes that the children's lantern paintings tell their own stories, with many innocent and natural features combined with bright and pure colors.

"The Mid-Autumn Festival is not only a festival for children, but children are the center of the Full Moon Festival. Therefore, the lantern painting works are a unique highlight of the exhibition," said artist Le Thiet Cuong.

According to him, the colors in the statues and paintings are filled with sound and light, soft, pure, and joyful enough to take viewers back to the childhood festival and relive the passionate youth.

In the paintings, the water surface and the moon connect with the earth, and people merge with nature to sing a song of gratitude to life. Artists paint and make statues to preserve the "lunar seasons" so that beautiful moments and memories in life will last forever.

Lunar Season Fishes by Hoang Phuong Lien.

Each artist, with years, memories, and aspirations, paints their own Moon Season together.

It could be the season of sound, as painter Do Dung evokes the love song of Quan Ho, like the statue Dieu Am by sculptor Le Minh Tri.

It is the season of light like Autumn Sun by Nguyen Thanh Quang and Moonlight by Tran Hong Duc; it is the season of joy, the season of waiting in the paintings Welcoming the Moon by Vuong Linh, Celebrating the Moon by Nguyen Quoc Thang, Watching the Moon by Tao Linh; or like the season of Moon Dance by Binh Nhi, the season of Golden Lotus by Tran Gia Tung, the season of Memory by Tran Giang Nam, among others.

The exhibition will run until September 20, at the Center for Culture and Arts, No. 22 Hang Buom Street, Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi.

Full Moon Season by Binh Nhi.