Home *Grapevine picks* Book Launch and Exhibition: “LOST & FOUND Hanoi”

Book Launch and Exhibition: “LOST & FOUND Hanoi”

Posted on 10/04/2014

Opening and Book Launch: Tue 15 Apr, 6 pm
Exhibition: 16 Apr – 18 May 2014, 09 am – 7 pm
Goethe Institut

Lose yourself in the grain of this thousand-year-old metropolis. Through five different viewpoints and five different cameras, Thing Asian Press’ most recent book of photographies “Lost&Found Hanoi” captures the “joy and the sadness at the end of the alley in the heart of Hanoi.” To celebrate the book launch, the Goethe-Institut and the photo artists will exhibit a selection of the pictures.

In the exhibition, you will enter living spaces tucked away in alleys; enjoy art installations that expose Hanoi’s natural world; study the architecture that has developed over the centuries, and the graphic design that has become an integral part of the urban landscape; watch people who are savoring a sidewalk meal, rushing off to work in a wild river of traffic, working at jobs that have existed forever and at new occupations that will change the city.

We invite you to watch the exuberance of boys taking flight on skateboards, the trendy chic of hipsters in tattoos and elegantly tailored blue jeans, the beauty of aging faces whose countenances have been shaped by decades of struggle. When you have seen the photographs, flipped through the book’s glossy pages, you’ll want to lose yourself in this city on your own, finding the places that will make Hanoi yours – a private terrain that rewards those who learn how to let the city take them.

On the night of the opening, discounted copies of “Lost&Found Hanoi” can be purchased.

Free entrance.

BIOGRAPHY

Nguyen The Son is an acclaimed Vietnamese artist who has been critically observing the changes in his urban environment for over a decade. His multidisciplinary art practices embrace silk painting, video art, photography, photo relief and photo installation. He holds a MFAs of the Central Academy of Fine Arts Beijing (CAFA) and is lecturing at the Vietnam University of Fine Art, has exhibited and done many workshops throughout Vietnam and in other countries.

Elizabeth Rush is a writer and photographer who has crossed borders with Bangladeshi cattle smugglers, built homes with Lima’s squatters, climbed abandoned buildings on Hanoi’s periphery, and participated in the underground performance art scene in Yangon, Myanmar. Her photography is entirely analog: shot on a Canon F1 with Provia slide film. Her work has appeared in Granta, Orion, Le Monde Diplomatique, Frieze, Asian Geographic, and the Global Oneness Project among others, and her book Still Lifes from a Vanishing City is forthcoming with Things Asian Press.

Matthew Dakin: Feeling a strong desire to explore his Vietnamese roots, Matthew Dakin set off for Southeast Asia where he became entranced with the raw elegance of Hanoi. In 2002 he moved here. Matthew explores and captures an intriguing and dynamic Vietnam, whether in architecture, portraiture, or fine art photography.

Maika Elan is a documentary and fashion photographer who shoots primarily with Lomo cameras, a favorite among analogue enthusiasts. Her documentary photography essay project, The Pink Choice, won 1st prize in the Contemporary Issues category at World Press Photo competition in 2013. The Goethe Institute hosted her first solo exhibition in 2012.

Aaron Joel Santos: Born in New Orleans, Aaron Joel Santos has lived in Vietnam since late 2007. His photographs aim to depict the strangeness and beauty in everyday life in Southeast Asia, a kind of attainable exoticism, a wonderful and weird world that is both familiar and unexpected. Aaron’s work has been published with some of the largest names in the print industry, and his travels throughout the region have been well documented by magazines and newspaper around the world.