KVT – Delectably Dotty in Quang Trung

KVT – Delectably Dotty in Quang Trung

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KVT amazed again by the Japanese.

There’s a blockbuster in town….and it’s truly amazing!

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It’s several art installations by an old lady in her eighties but just about all the viewers are aged between 15 and 25……and there’s hordes of them.

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I arrived back in Hanoi about 2pm after a slow, delightfully cool, fourteen day motor bike trip along border tracks from  Dien Bien Phu to Lang Son and after a wash up I headed to the Japan Foundation to catch the amazing work they are showing by Japanese octagenarian, the delightfully eccentric and totally famous Yayoi Kusama.

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Outside in Quang Trung Street the place was a rush and roar of motor bikes trying to get a parking spot with parking attendants almost tearing their hair out and youngsters streaming into the polka dotted courtyard.

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It was 4.30 pm and the official head count of viewers for the day was heading towards 550 and since the show opened way back on the 25th over 6 000 have come along to get a taste of Yayoi Kusama’s ‘Obsessions’.

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My informant was clicking her counter madly as more people streamed through the polka dotted entrance gates and between clicks told me that the majority of the attendees had been of the young variety with a smattering of oldies.

It was easy to wander amongst the outside installations and not get too jostled but the line up to get into the two inside galleries was patient and lengthy.

Apparently the quietest time to visit  is between 12 and one so I’ll wait until next week and try to get in when the hordes are an com.

Any way here  are more images of the exciting stuff that a lot of very keen young Vietnamese are oohing and aahing over and taking loads of photos of. I tried to  snatch the pics inbetween the wonderful scenes of the viewers connecting with the work of one of the world’s best contemporary artists

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Interestingly the installation of stainless steel balls that pools and puddles and glints around the grounds is taken from the artist’s installation ‘Narcissus Garden’ at the 1966 Venice Bienalle.

Venice Bienalle

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As I’ve been obsessed with Kusama since way back in the last century, I’ll get along on a quiet day!!!!!! and sit and contemplate an obsessively dotty opinion piece about her for future publication.

The exhibition is open until the end of July and its one of those events that is ideal to take your own youngsters along to see so that they can be surrounded by the fun and spectacle of it all

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And how did the news about the exhibition reach all of those young people who are spending interactive time surrounded by those dots…….it got picked up by a teenager website: kenh.14.vn. and the rest is amazing history.

To finish: a perfectly perfect image of the artist in 2007.

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When I pulled away from the parking area three motor bikes zeroed in to commandeer the empty space and people were still dribbling in at a pace to keep the thumb of the people counter busy.

Kiem Van Tim is a keen observer of life in general and the Hanoi cultural scene in particular and offers some of these observations to the Grapevine. KVT insists that these observations and opinion pieces are not critical reviews. Please see our Comment Guidelines / Moderation Policy and add your thoughts in the comment field below.

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