The prolonged pandemic has strongly affected cultural and artistic life, setting Vietnamese artists and their international colleagues further apart. Creating network-based multimedia performances is their way to cooperate over recent time.

“here&there” performance

The artists join the “here&there” multimedia performance. Photo courtesy of Goethe Institut in Hanoi

A multimedia show performed by international and Vietnamese artists titled “here&there” will be premiered at 7pm on Sunday, November 28.

It will be held in both in-person and virtual format at Goethe Institut in Hanoi (No 56-60 Nguyen Thai Hoc Street, Ba Dinh District) and the organization’s fanpage of https:www.facebook.com/Goethe.Institut.Hanoi.

The performance is a collaborative work created by artists based in Germany and Vietnam. It is a multi-layered work tackling the topics of long-distance relationships and the role technology has in them. Movement, video, lights, and sound are all equal partners merging and weaving together.

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has affected all the people and changed the world in innumerable ways.

Vietnamese choreographer and dancer Vu Ngoc Khai. Photo courtesy of Goethe Institut in Hanoi

“All four of us have had experiences with living in different countries, far away from our friends, families, and partners. These shared experiences have inspired us to think deeply about what “connection” really means for us, what are the reasons for the “disconnect”, what is there to “reconnect” with, and how…,” the artists stated.

Vietnamese multimedia composer, performer, and improviser Pham Thi Tam is the project leader. Other co-authors of the “here&there” piece are German-Chilean composer, media artist and light designer Diego Muhr, Vietnamese choreographer and dancer Vu Ngoc Khai, and Serbian composer and accordionist Goran Lazarevic.

This event is the last performance of Reconnect-a Goethe Institut’s project about trans-local cooperation with meaningful online gatherings, which provided a sense of human connection during the ongoing pandemic.

“White Distance” exhibition

Portrait drawings of 38 volunteers from the MAP 2021 project by Liz Adams (France)

Heritage Space and Artistic Director Nguyen Anh Tuan introduced to Vietnamese audience “White Distance” - the final showcase of their annual contemporary international art exchange project called ‘Month of Art Practice – MAP 2021’.

The two-week-long exhibition is being displayed at Union Hall, Complex 01 (No.29 Lane 31, Alley 167 Tay Son Street, Dong Da District, Hanoi) and via online.

The project run from July 2021 to mid-September with a series of weekly online discussions involving a large group of artists who participated in the project from 2016-2020. The official time of the launch of MAP 2021 was in early October with the participation of 20 artists from Germany, the US, Japan, South Korea, India, Switzerland, Finland, France, and Vietnam.

After eight weeks working together, seventeen individual and collaborative projects by all artists are implemented on multiple online platforms with many new working methods, remotely supported by the coordinators and volunteer’s team in Hanoi.

“Sustainable Friendship” exhibition

The displayed items at the “Sustainable Friendship” exhibition. Photo: http://mod.gov.vn/

An exhibition entitled “Sustainable Friendship” to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the establishment of military relations between Vietnam and the Soviet Union/Russian Federation (January 30, 1950-January 30, 2020) is underway at the Vietnam Military History Museum, No. 28A Dien Bien Phu Street, Ba Dinh District, Hanoi. It will last until December 5.

Consisting of nearly 200 typical images, documents and artifacts, the exhibition is divided into two parts “Timeless Impressions” and “Friendship, Cooperation and Development”.

The exhibition showcases the close friendship between the two communist parties, the States, and the peoples of Vietnam and Russia. The two countries have always been strategic partners in the military field. In recent years, the two sides have jointly carried out raining military personnel, weapons supply and army games.