The Best Cultural Happenings In The Year Of The Horse

As we say goodbye to the year of the Horse, our editorial team looks back at the increasingly expanding cultural scene in Saigon and beyond. From theatre to art exhibitions, these are, in no particular order, the acts that caught our attention.

Performing Arts: Standpoint Theories at Cargo Bar

As live, multi-disciplinary art performances go, Standpoint Theories occupies a place of its own. Their second ambitious show combined modern dance, electronic music, singing and visual art to re-interpret six traditional Vietnamese myths. Into their second year of collaboration, the artists behind Standpoint Theories grabbed Saigon’s attention for their refreshing creativity and daring approach to explore not only the interconnection of various art forms, but also bridging local traditions with the contemporary. More remarkable is that this independent, artist-run production had the quality and sophistication commonly seen in large, established productions.

Dance: The Mist (Sương Sớm) at the Opera House

Image courtesy of The Mist.

A collaboration between AO Show and the local dance company, Arabesque, The Mist depicts the cycles of Vietnamese rural life. Choreographer Nguyen Tan Loc brought together contemporary dance sequences (a rarity in Vietnam) with scenes, objects and aesthetics that are unequivocally Vietnamese. From the gentle opening moments, where the dancers are seen working in the fields while surrounded by natural sounds, to the climax of the show, where a joyful and liberating rain of rice cascades from the sky, The Mist took the audience on an evocative and celebratory journey. Some of the best moments during the show were the ones in which they involved the audience. For instance, visitors were given wooden-clappers (commonly used to stir rice) to join in during scenes of celebrations or when the dancers moved the performance from the stage to the seats of the auditorium.

Image courtesy of The Mist.

Theatre: Waiting for Godot at Cargo

Photo via Adam Astley.

As does any proper theatre-junkie, I jump with excitement whenever I hear about a play being put on in Saigon. Not only because they are few and far in between, but because this particular one was by Samuel Beckett. Presented at Cargo by Saigon-based Dragonfly Theatre, this classic rendition of Beckett’s masterpiece Waiting for Godot was powerfully acted. Although it seems a bit unfair to pick one actor out of this amazing cast, the performance of 16-year-old JK Kazzi as Lucky (the humiliated and verbally abused servant of Pozzo) was a special one. Empathetic and restrained until the end of the first act, he then exploded into a machine-gun-like monologue that had the audience filling the venue with a strong round of applause. While critically acclaimed and a widely known and loved production, it is was still a brave decision for Dragonfly Theatre to stage it in an environment where the Theatre of the Absurd is practically unknown. Well done to Dragonfly for sharing the words (or the lack thereof, in this case) of one of Europe’s greatest playwrights.

Photo via Adam Astley.

Exhibition: Mr Bastian the Time Traveller at the Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Museum

If there was an exhibition this year where you could read on people’s faces “finally, something different!”, Mr Bastian The Time Traveller by Kumkum Fernando was the one. However, this isn’t the only reason this exhibition made it onto our list. Partly magic, partly real, Mr Bastian was a dream-like voyage through collages of memorabilia, found objects, animals and bold colours. Inspired by the journal of the artist’s great-grandfather who believed he could time travel, the show gave the viewers space for individual interpretation. It presented the intimate relationship between the source material, through quotes and extracts from the journal, and the creative re-interpretation of the artist.

Opening night of the exhibition. Image courtesy of the artist.

New Artist: Nguyen Nhut AKA Lai at deciBel Lounge

Image courtesy of the artist.

Up until two years ago, digital art was practically non-existent in Saigon. Recently, we have seen this worldwide and prolific art form, which has been largely ignored for over 40 years, finally enter our galleries (Khoa Le at Craig Thomas Gallery) and indie art spaces. And can we just say that it is about time considering how many young Vietnamese study and work with digital illustrations, video-mapping, 3D animation and so on. In fact, when I attended Nguyen Nhut AKA Lai’s first solo exhibition, ‘The Portrait’, at first, it did not even cross my mind that the pieces I was looking at were digital paintings and not oil ones. The Hanoian artist’s enigmatic, yet accessible, nine portraits linked “classical” structural elements such as bust sculpture with techniques of the digital age. Furthermore, his vision of human representation challenges gender perceptions by combining fundamentals of Asian philosophy (Yin and Yang) with iconography from contemporary sci-fi films.

New Art Initiative: 3A Station (Alternative Art Space)

It was a toss up between the non-profit Sao La and the alternative art and retail space, 3A Station. The latter makes it on our list primarily for one reason: they have actively involved the local community and promoted their cultural events through social media, newspapers and local magazines. Since one of the main objectives from both organisations is to make art more accessible to people that normally would not go to galleries, 3A seems to have done a better job at it. Pity, because the new-born Sao La had some interesting and rare events, such as dance performances, film screenings, workshops and artist’s talks. Established in the mid-2014, 3A Station has involved local and international street artists to work on collective projects. It regularly organises an art and craft bazaar welcoming a variety of creative people, and it has recently began to host art exhibitions (Non La Poetry). Only a few weeks ago, it collaborated with UFO and Saigon Artbook for a day of street culture (art, dance, singing, parkour and inline skating, Concrete Canvasses.

Music: Tonstartssbandht at Saigon Outcast

Give me psychedelic-rock music accompanied by celestial vocals, backed-up by solid musicianship and I am on board. The American duo, Tonstartssbandht, made a stop at Saigon Outcast last December and, despite the unwelcoming weather that forced the band to play for only an hour and a half, they filled the venue with their seemingly unstoppable sound and musical exploration.

Worth mentioning in the realm of music this year is also the mammoth-task that was Saigon International Music Week, in which Saigon-based organisers Loud Minority and Saigon Sound System brought to Cargo’s stage four international bands for a week of music.

From abroad: ‘Licence2Draw’ by UuDam Tran Nguyen at Koganecho Bazaar

Vietnamese multi-disciplinary artist UuDam Tran Nguyen was one of the artists selected for the residency at Koganecho Bazaar (Japan) last year. With the support of a tech team, Nguyen created the application, Licence2Draw, which enabled smartphone users from around the world to draw on a floor-canvas in Yokohama through a drawing-car. Although robotic art has been around for more than half a century and it is becoming increasingly present on international platforms, in Vietnam it is untapped territory. Nguyen’s robotic project is not simply an experiment with computer software, for its main purpose is to bring people together through making art and to transcend geo-political differences.