HÀ NỘI — An art project conceived during social distancing will open on Sunday at Hà Nội’s Goethe Institute. 

Entitled Mirrors of Confinement – Ignite Creativity Grant 2020, was created by artist and designer Nguyễn Linh Chi featuring an art installation, dance and visual lighting. 

During the last social distancing period in Hà Nội, Chi saw the dance Cafe Muller by choreographer Pina Bausch. She was inspired by the dance which was based on Pina’s childhood memories of watching her father work in his café during and immediately following World War II.

“I think the spirit seems to connect with the time when people have to stay at home during the social-distancing period because of the pandemic,” Chi said. 

“My work was created in about six months not two months as I originally planned because of the social distancing. But the difficulties stimulated me and gave me more time to make the work best.”

Chi, a graduate from visual communication from Camberwell College of Arts in London, UK, experiments with mixed-media approaches such as illustration, installation and applied arts. 

Mirrors and glass gradually became the major focus of her work. 

As a part of the project, the show entitled The Room (Căn Phòng) is made by Chi, choreographer Nguyễn Duy Thành, light artist Đặng Xuân Trường and dancer Đào Nhật Vy.

Starting for passion hip-hop, Thành is the first Vietnamese artist to add an Asian touch, both in the traditional and contemporary sense to hip-hop, creating an original approach.

He has collaborated with Vietnamese and international artists such as Trần Ly Ly, Arco Renz and Heiner Goebbels. 

He choreographs the dance with sympathy to Chi’s idea. Everyone has a room for themselves which can be a physical room or something other helping them to find their nature, Thành said. 

The project consists of The Room, a screening of Pina-dance, Dance Otherwise We Are Lost  by director Wim Wenders and a short virtual conversation with dance actress from Pina’s Tanztheater Wuappertal, Germany as a tribute to the legendary artist Pina Bausch, as well as a response developed during the pandemic. VNS

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