With more than 170 artists, curators, and experts from many countries, 22 exhibitions at 20 locations, and 29 seminar, film screening, and workshop activities, Photo Hanoi25 affirms its position as one of the largest and most influential photography events in Southeast Asia.
Opening this event is the exhibition "Memories of Cities" by artist and curator Nguyen The Son, which is considered the "soul" of the event, taking place at the 22 Hang Buom Cultural and Artistic Center, the space that was once the ancient Quang Dong bar Association.
Right from the door, a very interesting train model combined with photography and installation has led viewers into the space of stories about urban areas, memories and the transformation of time, through the eyes of 30 Vietnamese and international artists.
Inspired by sitting in the airport lounge, looking at the current time zone of cities around the world, the curator of the exhibition, artist Nguyen The Son exploited the image of "time lenses" as a symbol connecting 19 cities through the rhythm of memories".
From Hanoi, where Jean- Charles Sarrazin's films evoke the city in post-war years, to Paris, Tokyo, Bilbao or Yangon, each urban space appears as a living being, containing layers of memories built up over time.
Meanwhile, Vietnamese artists such as Dong Hieu, Pham Duy, Bao Zoan, Quang Lam... brought closer slices: Hanoi at night, the city standing still amid the pandemic, or neighborhoods changing day by day.
Memories of Cities not only recall memories, but also invite viewers to reflect on urban identity, on how we belong to a certain place. The works are diverse in size, color, and expression from documentary photography to contemporary photography, from aesthetic perspective, shaping to a deep look into the heart of the city, bringing the audience many emotions and thoughts.
From 22 Hang Buom, the journey of photographers can continue to VCCA (Royal City) to explore "Mien Trap", curator Dang Thuy Anh and Van Do. Here, photography is no longer simply a moment to be "captured", but becomes a performance behavior, a form of intervention in reality. The question "How can a camera dialogue with a performance?" makes viewers reflect on the line between image and action. In another direction, artist Caro Gervay (France) brought the exhibition "The season of waking up" at the Hanoi French Institute, an artistic response to Kim Lefevre's memoir "The girl with white skin". Amidst the fog of Da Lat, Gervay recreates memories and identity through mixed photographic materials, a profound and humane feminism perspective.
If Vietnamese crossroads at the French Embassy takes the audience back in time with precious photos of Daniel Roussel, Gilbert Bertrand and Lily Franey, authors who recorded Vietnam from the 1970s-1980s; then Length of the view at the Hoan Kiem Lake public space breaks all traditional visual frames. Under the hands of curator Ly Hoang Long and Mai Nguyen Anh, landscape photos are shown in an vertical direction, as a challenge to the habit of looking out, evoking the connection between people, technology and nature in the digital age.
And finally, the exhibition "Practice photography of young artists" at 40 Lan Ong (Hanoi) was curated by Nguyen The Son, as a support for the new generation of creatives. 25 young artists bring fresh, independent and committed projects, where photography is seen as a personal language of expression, not just a recording technique.
Along with the exhibition series are academic and community activities, such as the seminar "Is photography today returning to the old days?" (November 7) at Complex 01 recreating the journey from the darkroom, wet plate, large format to museum-standard printing techniques, like a "living history lesson" on the theory of imageolution.Meanwhile, the seminar "Redefining the role of photography in the AI era" (November 4) brings together international speakers and Vietnamese artists, which is considered a key discussion session of Photo Hanoi "25, where the question "Is photography still photography when created by AI?" is raised seriously, sharply and full of modernity.
