OPENING OF THE EXHIBITION “THE MEMORIES OF TO LICH RIVER”
Taking place from 30/4 to 30/5/2022, the exhibition “The memories of To Lich river” is introduced to the public at the center for art and culture at 22 Hang Buom
“Nhị Hà quanh Bắc sang Đông
Kim Ngưu Tô Lịch là sông bên này”
These are 2 sentences of the old folk has depicted a picture of a Hanoi in the past, a Hanoi – a city among the rivers, a city of rivers and lakes. Hanoi used to have many ponds and rivers before the French came and planned to become a modern city according to French design. The ponds and rivers was gradually leveled and replaced by aligned streets. Sharing the same fate, To Lich River used to be 1 river bridging throughout the history of Thang Long, also gradually disappearing in the memory of thousands of immigrants through historical periods.
Going back to the memory of those slowly destroyed and lost rivers, there is an artist Vu Xuan Dong who has always had the image of the To Lich river in his works for 20 years. Perhaps during a long period of his life as an art student and later career, when renting a studio located right next to a section of the To Lich river which was “dying” before being converted into a street like so many streets in this city, artist Vu Xuan Dong gradually bring the story of the river into his fine art creations as a “upsetting” from when did he not know.
From graduating with lacquer material 20 years ago when taking the theme of the To Lich river, in the following years, experimenting with many other materials from oil paint, acrylic, gouache, lacquer, bronze mound relief or installation. Despite always struggling with urban life, He bring the story of To Lich river “lives” again and flows in his compositions whenever he has conditions and time. The image of the river in Vu Xuan Dong’s works is probably also reflecting the image of the relentless influx of immigrants into this city, always trying their best, like small cool waters always aspiring to pour into big rivers.
The exhibition “The memories of To Lich river” takes place in a space that used to be the mouth of the To Lich river to the Red River in the Ha Khau ward (the former mouth of the river). Hang Buom Street used to be busy trading goods related to boats to serve the sailboats gathered at Van Chai Phuc Tan Phuc Xa wharf. Behind the old Guangdong Assembly Hall is also To Lich river that runs smoothly to Buoi street, before being planned by the French to level and rename the city of Án Sát Sieu and Nguyen Sieu street now. The exhibition “The memories of To Lich river” as an attempt to continue dialogue with context and place, with a very special space of the old Guangdong assembly hall, contributing to the continuation of the art flow at 22 Hang Buom – the Center for Cultural and Art.