Singapore is being invaded. The Vietnamese flag is going up along with communist propaganda posters; government ministers are being escorted round town and there are plans to serve up bowls of noodles to the people.
Fourteen Singapore museums and private galleries have banded together, along with restaurants, collectors and artists, to present the city-state's first cultural festival dedicated to another country.
The event is anchored by a four-month exhibition at the Asian Civilisations Museum, opening today. Curated by Heidi Tan, it is an ambitious attempt to cover 2,500 years of history along the 3,260 kilometers of coastline that defines modern Vietnam.
Inter-government cooperation allowed Tan and her team to source artifacts from throughout Vietnam, from the ancient Phung Nguyen culture of the Red River delta in the north, to the Champa kingdom of the central and southern regions.
``We borrowed about 160 pieces from Vietnam across the country,'' said Michael Koh, chief executive officer of Singapore's National Heritage Board, which runs the state museums. ``A lot of people don't understand Vietnam. It's an opportunity for us to start discovering and start introducing this to the world.''
There are some exquisite items on display: bronze-age drums from the Dong Son period; 2-millennia-old jade knives that look like they were made yesterday; elaborate Ly dynasty snake carvings; and a gold and silver 9th-century statue of Lokeshvara with two tiny scrolls found hidden inside her head that have yet to be deciphered.
Business Plan
``Viet Nam: From Myth to Modernity'' is a scholarly and complex exhibition and it can be hard to follow the interweaving of civilizations and wars. For anyone planning business or investment in Vietnam, it provides a good grounding in how Vietnam's attitude to China has grown up over centuries of fighting, cooperation and assimilation.
Unfortunately, the exhibition ends where most people's knowledge of Vietnamese history begins. There are just five small items hung on the wall by the exit to cover the French colonial period, the independence struggle, the Vietnam War, the communist unification and the recent economic development.
Tan said they scoured the collections in Vietnam and just couldn't find items from the colonial period.
Fast-forward to the present over at the Singapore Art Museum, where a selection of Vietnam's contemporary art is on display.
Doi Moi
``Post Doi Moi: Vietnamese Art After 1990,'' upstairs in the undulating and labyrinthine rooms and corridors of the converted boys' school, has 62 works by 46 artists. It is a primer on the country's artistic development since the Doi Moi (Renovation) policy of 1986 began to open Vietnam's economy.
The exhibition dates from the year the first commercial gallery opened in Hanoi since the communists gained power. Many of the artists grew up during the war against the U.S., often relocated to the countryside for safety.
Like their counterparts in China, the artists often explore the effects of the rapid economic expansion that has swept the country -- the contrasts between the old and new, the change in people's attitudes, the rise of consumerism.
Nguyen Trung's dark untitled picture from 1994 shows old buildings in Ho Chi Minh City.
``Each of these houses had its own character, its own soul and substance,'' Nguyen said in the catalog. ``But we destroyed them to build new ones, skyscrapers, which transform the land into a modern city.''
In Le Quang Ha's ``The Dictator,'' an eight-armed melting metallic monster grasps the air in all directions, morphing from a pile of machinery -- a disturbed view of the industrialization in the cities as Vietnam wins manufacturing business from China.
Stamps, Costumes
Elsewhere, Vietnamese stamps are on show at the Philatelic Museum. (Stamps don't make a very big display, so they also have a bunch of old postcards and ethnic costumes to build up the show.) The Raffles Museum looks at Vietnam's fauna; Le Quoc Viet will be painting and printmaking as an artist in residence; and the Singapore Art Museum will dish up bowls of pho in its courtyard.
The six-month extravaganza shows how big Vietnam has become on the Southeast Asian map as businesses, investment and tourists pour in.
``It's opening up,'' Koh said. ``The Vietnamese are just starting.''
``Viet Nam: From Myth to Modernity'' runs through Sept. 30 at the Asian Civilisations Museum. ``Post Doi Moi: Vietnamese Art After 1990'' is at the Singapore Art Museum until Sept. 28. Details of timing and events in the festival can be found on the National Heritage Board's Web site at
No comments:
Post a Comment