KVT – A Wondrous Costumed Experience @ Goethe

KVT discovers courtly Ao Dais and finds out that gorgeous yellow flows over pale leaves

Whenever I’m at an exhibition about which I intend to concoct an opinion piece, my mind is questing for a spring from which the words will well up and trickle into my fingers.

Sometimes it’s as easy as pie. Occasionally it takes a few days of cogitation or divining.

The Ao Dai exhibition at Goethe had two immediate flash points…one visual, one coincidental

Number One: The Floor

The curator has paved the floor with golden bamboo

When I walked across it I was tactilely reminded of the times I’ve stayed in ethnic minority stilt houses that have bamboo slat floors that move like gentle ocean waves as you traverse them.-for those who want to have the experience then a trip to a couple of the replicated houses at Ethnology Museum would suffice….for maximum, easy swell pleasure choose a slow time of the day when you’ve got the space to yourself.

A closer look at the exhibition floor had me realizing that I was walking on bamboo shoulder poles as used by Vietnamese farmers and workers since the year dot

As I was surrounded by suspended Ao Dai as worn by royalty, courtiers and mandarins associated with the Nguyen Dynasty in the hey days of Hue I was immediately taken by the metaphorical association of the privileged few living off the efforts of the down trodden masses.

Just as I was sitting down on a bamboo stool developing this hypothesis, the coincidental occurred
In walked artist Ha Manh Thang and he spent a long time with the exhibits, especially a heavily embroidered golden piece

The coincidence was that in his last couple of series his paintings have an intersection with Hue, with the royal citadel, and coincidentally, his 2014 show included representations of Nguyen Dynasty Ao Dai and coincidentally too, in an oblique way, his exhibition that included the dynastic Ao Dai was called FADING DREAMS-DISINTEGRTING REALITIES which could be a theme underlying the disintegrating realities of many historical Ao Dai that are not housed in suitable conditions or adequately maintained.

Yellow was thel color of Kings and another Ao Dai, presented as a floor piece is also spectacular and gorgeously yellow

The multimedia installation is excellently presented.

Ten costumes are suspended, covered in heavy plastic to help protect them from the elements and the oil and residue from inquisitive human fingers. On one wall are photo images of the costumes plus text in Vietnamese and German.These are taken from a handsome yellow bound book that is on dispay and for sale and at 180 00VND –is a steal for all sorts of afficionadoes

A series of small screens shows Vietnamese talking heads commenting –with English subtitles- on various aspects of the costumes. These include a collector, an historian, a conservator, museum manager, a 95 year old member of the generation fairy intimately connected to the last dynasty, and, intestingly, a university student who gives a youthful contemporary viewpoint

The heads talk individually at intervals as though in conversation from various parts of the exhibition space and I found it engrossing to read a copy of the transcript of the conversations-available in English-while sitting in a quiet spot.

The Ao Dai are from the private collection of Thai Kim Lan who was born in Hue and spent much of her academic life in Germany

It is interesting to note that most collections of similar historic costumes are held by people and institutions outside the country and that is preferabl that they stay there until proper facilities are availble in Hanoi..at such suitable places as the Women’s Museum

Also interesting to realize how few examples are left due to destruction-and perhaps theft- when regimes with different ideologies took over or attacked Hue in the last century.

The exhibition, to mark the 40th anniversary of German/Vietnamese diplomatic relations is truly exceptional and was curated by extremely talented Veronika Witte and thetext underneath her image helps explain the visual beauty and informational import of the show

Veronika Witte has been working in Berlin since 1998 in the fields of sculpture, video and scenic installations always blurring the lines between visual arts, music and opera. From 1988 to 1993 she studied at the Ecôle Nationale Supérièure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. She received awards and grants in Israel, France and Germany, among others. Her scenic installations and performances were sht the Museum Ludwig in Aachen, the Stadtgaleria in Saarbrücken, the Galerie Quang in Paris and the Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bathanien in Berlin inter alia. In 2002 she held the position of visiting professor at the Ecôle Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts, Paris.

I began with coincidence and will end with the somewhat the same

FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TRULY EXCELLENT IMAGES GO TO THIS GRAPEVINE LINK