In September 2018 Vietnam participated in the London Design Design Biennale for the first time. The installation ‘Khải’ created for the Biennale will be shown in its inaugural exhibition in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Exhibition Opening | Thursday, 21st May 2020 from 6.30 - 9.30pm
at Manzi Exhibition Space, No.2 Ngõ Hàng Bún
Exhibition | 22nd May - 4th June 2020, daily 9.30am - 7pm
Led by a research of Dr Marta Gasparin from the University of Leicester School of Business (UK) and curator Claire Driscoll alongside Vietnamese designers Thảo Vũ, Giang Nguyễn and Lê Thanh Tùng, Khải was created as a response to the Biennale theme ‘Emotional States’.
The exhibition sought to address the issue that there is no global knowledge of what Vietnamese design today looks and feels like and does so by showcasing how young designers look forward by way of reclaiming their past as the country transforms. ‘Khải' is an invitation to pause and reflect on this idea while introducing a country’s relationship to its heritage of working with one's hands - the long tradition of a design rooted in social need, that has and continues to shape design made in Vietnam.
The three Vietnamese designers showcased in this exhibition, each have an aspect of this in their practice and the choice has been made to curate their work in a way where they come together as a unity – their work being at once an extension and part of one another. This is to highlight the complexity of the Vietnamese identity today, a unity made up of diversity.
The very process of the traditional craft production referenced throughout the Vietnamese pavilion often brings an unconscious meditative state to the makers and as such the design showcased here both transmits emotion and transcends it.
In Vietnam process has long been born out of social necessity, which translates simply into doing what is necessary to fix an issue. But in this process of doing, one is able to be emotionally reflective and thus gain a degree of clarity – as you are weaving, carving, stirring, dying, drawing, outlining, printing and mapping, an influx of emotions is possible. The craft process is the key to emotional release. In these processes stories are told, secrets are shared and lives are lived.
This project has been generously supported by a number of organisations, without their commitment to Vietnamese art and design, none of this would have been possible.
Our special thanks to: University of Leicester School of Business, Incite Research Team, E.S.R.C, Dragon Capital, NashTech, Vietnam UK Network, British University Vietnam, Vietnam Airlines, New World Fashion Group, British Embassy Hanoi, Embassy of Vietnam in the UK, British Council, Work Room Four, Manzi Art Space.
The Manzi Exhibition Space is supported by the Goethe Institut Hanoi.
Back
