One of Vietnam’s most prominent fashion designers, Nguyen Cong Tri, will celebrate some of his best works from the last 20 years this month.
Hailing from Da Nang, the 41-year-old fashion designer first started his career in fashion in 2000 when he won first prize in the "New Idea" category of the Vietnam Collection Grand Pix award. Since then, Cong Tri has built a name for himself in high-end fashion, incorporating a variety of hand-made techniques in his designs, including laser cutting, interlacing, hand-ironed pleating, knitting, hand painting and making use of jewel embellishments.
From December 27 to 29, a show titled Cuc Im Lang will celebrate the fashion designer's career through collaborations with 10 contemporary artists working in different mediums and disciplines. Some of these artists include Saigon-based visual artist Ngo Dinh Bao Chau and multimedia artist Truong Cong Tung, a member of the art collective Art Labor. Tung's practice transforms materials, via video, installation, found objects and paintings into embodied contemplation on cultural and geopolitical shifts.
Shanghai-born Lu Yang is another artist that will give her re-imagination of Cong Tri's work. Famous for her use of media cultural artifacts to explore the domains of spirituality, traditional medicine, morality and sexuality, the Chinese artist will bring an interesting perspective to the show. Vietnamese-French artist Truc-Anh, whose main medium is painting, will also contribute his lens to Cuc Im Lang.
Besides visual arts, the show also welcomes two performance artists, Ngo Thanh Phuong and Alexander Tu. Phuong is a contemporary dancer and choreographer who's known for her choreography work in Teh Dar, while Tu has 20 years of experience in hip-hop and street dancing. Others include London-based photographer Hua Nhu Xuan and director Bao Nguyen.
Hanoi-based architect VUUV and Tung CrazyMonkey, a digital artist famous for his visuals for live music stages, will also join the cohort of artists participating in the show.
The show will be directed by stage director Viet Tu and curated by Arlette Quynh-Anh Tran with Ha Do as its creative director. The team also includes Duong Tran Bao as the production director, Quynh Huong as the storyteller and Tung Leo as the media coordinator.
More information about Cuc Im Lang can be found here.
[Photo via Nguyen Cong Tri]
