The KVT Awards – Best of 2011

KVT PICKS HIS PERSONAL BEST OF 2011

For the past couple of years (2009, 2010) I’ve made an annual compilation of the best cultural stuff that I’ve seen in the previous 12 months.

ABSENTIA: In 2011 I was absent from Hanoi for 16 weeks (eight to escape the summer and eight to catch an early Christmas and the solar new year with friends I’d just about forgotten). Then there were those times when the smog and noise of Hanoi got too overbearing so I had to escape to the sanity of the remotest mountain places I could find. Thus my list is bereft of a few gems that I missed.

CRITERIA: As in 2010 I’ve restricted my list to cultural happenings that featured Vietnamese locals. Viet Kieu were eligible, particularly if they’d been in the country for an extended period or, like all foreigners, eligible if they’d collaborated with the locals and the locals played an equal or dominant role.

OPINIONISTA: Now it’s an annual list that only includes my particular interests and areas of expertise. I don’t include modern music genres apart from good jazz and really great ‘new sound’ and experimental stuff that roughly fits into a ‘classical’ connotation. Literature I leave out because my Vietnamese is at a 6-year-old level and I don’t think that it’s fair to judge on the few translated works that are available. Ditto with spoken drama.
So here goes………………………………..
and feel free to add you own favorites to this imperfect list!

5 STAR PLUS AWARDS…

shared 3 ways for things that took my breath away… completely

5 star+++ goes to ‘Through the Valley’….the wonderful theatrical event based on the western legend of Parcival. This collaborative spectacular at the Opera House in January was a collaborative venture between the Goethe Institute, the German Government, German theater specialists. and a host of Vietnamese singers, dancers and actors. It was a fine example of shared expertise.

5 Star +++ can still be experienced at the outdoor sculpture park founded by artist and philanthropist Vu Duc Hieu in the rural outskirts of Hoa Binh town. It features a really astounding work and excellent pieces by by Ha Tri Hieu, Pham Thai Binh, Tran Duc Sy, Nguyen Huy Thinh, Luong Van Trinh, Tran Trong Tri, Pham Van Tuan, Nguyen Tuan Khoi, Nguyen Ngoc Lam and Vuong Van Thao.

5 Star ++ was in April at Goethe when Nguyen Manh Hung’s brilliant diorama installation about ‘Living Together in Paradise’ gave me a surreal buzz.

5 STARS…

for other things that knocked my socks off

***** At the top of the music pops, for me, was Astor Piazzolla’s ‘Four Seasons of Buenos Aires’ which was given a sparkling interpretation at Nha Hat Lon in March by cellist Nguyen Hong Anh, Nguyen My Huong on the violin, saxophonist Nguyen Bao Long, drummer Le Viet Hung, double bassist Dao Minh Pha and nimble fingered pianists Tran Thai Linh and Nguyen Tien Manh.
***** In July, Luong Viet had a stunning exhibition of his steel sculptures at his hard to find but interesting studio workshop near Thang long bridge where the bits and pieces piled on shelves were almost as impressive as the pieces on show

***** Just as stunning were Vuong Van Thao’s living fossil sculptures of village gateways that are in danger of being subsumed by expanding greater Hanoi. L’Espace looked like an amber palace for the duration. It was a highlight of the May calendar

***** May also gave me one of those musical nights that stay with you for years. Guest conductor Andrea Pestalozza led the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra through a program of Schuman and Debussy
***** Although he was part of an excellent threesome exhibition by lads from Haiphong at the Art Museum in October, Vu Ngoc Vinh’s large oils were the best painting stuff I saw all year. Really excellent.

***** In May the Hanoi Philharmonic Orchestra, led by Spanish conductor Carlos Cuesta, were on top of every note as they accompanied brilliant Polish violinist, Alicja Smietana in Shostakovich’s first violin concerto. Electric!

And apart from the five star-ers already mentioned I came across these really impressive works and performances:

VISUAL ARTS

A lot of the best art around town was sculpture and installation and in chronological order I couldn’t get enough of
Nguyen Tuan’s terracotta Buddas at the Art Museum in January…unfortunately a few of the more provocative pieces hit a censor’s eye.

‘Fusion’ in March brought together three artists in three separate exhibitions over two weeks and all three presented exciting work but it was Van Ngoc’s challenging boxes, ropes and mirror installations that had me viscerally excited.

In June, Dinh Cong Dat’s briefly installed collection of papier mache poultry in a specially devised chook shed at Goethe was cacklingly and cock a doodlingly brilliant

Tran Thu Hang’s fabulous little art dolls in her ‘Silent Voices’ at the Japan Foundation in September were just about in my 5***** + listing. Entrancingly good.

I had to include Nguyen Khac Quan’s terracotta pregnant ladies in this compilation. They filled up two galleries at the Art Museum in October and his large field of quickly moulded miniatures was engrossing, particularly as they were all so individualistic

Also in October, a nicely provocative group exhibition at L’Espace called ‘Benign Tumors’ just about needs all five artists to be mentioned here but I’ll desist and stick to a diet of cake. Vu Duc Toan’s ‘Rice Powder Cake’ was arrestingly thoughtful and Nguyen Song’s sticky rice ‘Cake’ was gargantuanly unpalatable

Readers may be thinking that there was no good two dimensional work worth mentioning but we had jewels from:
Mai Duy Minh, from Hai Phong at the Art Museum in October. Three of his surreal pieces were superb.

Oang Phi Phi: whose lacquer transparencies that opened at L’Espace in December were little wonders to behold and her collaborator, Kim Vu Thu’s works on paper were delicate and intriguiging accessories.

Nguyen Quang Huy: whose love affair with the folk who people the rocky plateau around Dong Van and Meo Vac in Ha Giang Province was transposed onto misty, blue tinged canvasses at Art Vietnam in January

I wasn’t going to, but after another look at some images, I decided to include Le Kinh Tai’s rambunctious and flamboyant (and flamboyantly priced) semi graffiti extravaganzas –including painted 3D figures- in October at Viet Art Center

Au Co Gallery hosted the hyper-surreal works of Nguyen Hong Son in March. I wasn’t much taken with his Dali-esque earlier work but when I got into the work about steel and feathers and violins in the long back gallery I was sold

Performance art was once again a bit of a no go area but its reputation was saved by: A powerful dance cum performance piece by Le Nguyen Manh and Le Anh Hoai at the back room at the Cinematheque on Halloween. This chilling piece called ‘Speak Out’ was part of the interesting and ongoing Project Black. It’s a piece that has stayed with me.

Photography and video art: was highlighted by Doclab’s screening of The Long Bien Picture Show – short documentaries based around Long Bien Bridge – way back on a cold night at the beginning of the year. Some interesting pieces that went as far as international festivals

PERFORMING ARTS

DANCE

Minus was the dance highlight for me. It was performed by the Vietnam National Opera and Ballet dancers. A lot of the rest of their stuff was a pallid rehash of previously shown works, though pieces rehearsed under the tutelage of Jean-Paul Gravier and Bertrand d’At, Director of the France National du Rhin Theatre, and danced in October, were really promising, especially the all-male pas de quatre from Stravinsky’s ‘Firebird’. I missed a new contemporary dance, ‘Death and the Maiden’, which got excellent reviews. But it was Minus, way back in January that was worth its weight in platinum. Young dancers from the VNBO danced a scintillating 50-minute piece choreographed for them by Nguyen Ngoc Anh, a very talented Vietnamese dancer and choreographer who is mainly based in England

MUSIC

A highlight had to be the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra’s invasion of Carnegie Hall in New York in October, led by permanent conductor Tetsuji Honna. The dress rehearsal in Hanoi was excellent Other memorable classical moments with the VNSO were when:
• young Japanese violinist, Ryu Goto soloed Paganini’s Violin Concerto No 1 in June
• in May, much older Japanese viola player, Imai Nobuko, joined VNSO players in a chamber music recital of Benjamin Britten’s “Cello Suite No 1’ transposed for the viola.
• in March when Mr. Honna conducted Mahler’s First Symphony
• Jonas Alber led them through a wonderful Beethoven’s 7th preceded by violinist, Le Hoai Nam soloing in Beethoven’ Violin Concerto

Goethe provided a platform for a nice piano trio made up of Nguyen My Huong on violin, Nguyen Hong Anh on cello, and Tran Thai Linh on piano playing early works of Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Shostakovich. Very nice indeed was young Austrian/Dutch cellist Harriet Krijgh who joined Austrian conductor Wolgang Groehs and the Hanoi Philharmonic in Tchaikovsky’s ‘Rococo Variations’ in October and a couple of nights before when she and, French/Vietnamese pianist Kim Barbier and Japanese violinist Matsuda Lina played Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the VNSO.