More news from Hanoi.

CPAG Projects on display in large digital format.

Hi all,

It’s a little repetitive to say we’ve seen more of a beautiful country… and we have. An overnight trip to Ha Long Bay brought us into an archipelago of island forms that make it the current frontrunner on a UNESCO site that seeks votes for Seven Wonders of the World. Being good Chicagoans, O and I have voted early and often, though we have no delusions that our votes have put Ha Long Bay into its current lead. What an incredible place.

We’ve also been exceedingly busy lately. Many of our responsibilities are culminating tomorrow, Saturday, with the seminar of public art practices that was the impetus for Olivia and I being invited here. Tonight we attended an outdoor exhibition of images of public art projects from around the world, including Chicago.

Go figure, Chicago Public Art Group looked great in this context! CPAG images are richly varied by style, content, materials, etc. The exhibition included about 26 large format digital prints that were graphically redesigned by a UIC student located by Olivia. Also in the exhibition was work from Philadelphia’s Mural Arts Program and some from other agencies and countries around the world. I can easily and appreciatively say, “CPAG looked great!”

Among other varied and appreciative supporters were the Ford Foundation, the New Hanoi People’s Committee, and the Vietnam Fine Arts Association: a cross section of agencies not easily matched in any one gathering in the US.

Vietnam is a culture and country that is rushing into modernism. They consider themselves to have been recently “backward”. It is actually a little hard to imagine where they will be in another 10-20 years of activity. Among the capacities being developed here is a “modern” mosaic process that produces tight grout lines using sheets of wet clay! Can you figure the production issues that make this work and reduce costs per square foot?

More to come.

Jon

Hanoi is situated along the Red River at a site determined in 1010 AD when King Ly Thai of Vietnam saw a cloud in the shape of a dragon arising from the water. He proclaimed that the vision made the place an auspicious site for the new capitol of Vietnam. Nonetheless, during the rainy season, fed by mountain streams, the Red River would regularly flood Hanoi. An early “public works” program constructed a long earthen dyke along the river to protect the city from flooding. In 1990 the urban part of the dyke was reinforced with concrete, improving the effectiveness as the wall ran through the city of Hanoi. Last year, nearly 3½ miles of this dyke became the focus of the current project by Hanoi Ceramic Mosaic Mural program in anticipation of the 1000 year anniversary of the founding of Hanoi in 2010.

A portion of the dike wall.

Jon

June 5, 2008

x

Hi there,

O and I have just returned from a wonderful trip to Mai Chau, one of the earliest sights of modern Vietnamese tourism. During the height of the war, a guy starting hosting people in his home from all over the world. We met him today, 83 years old, with pictures of Ho Chi Minh and others on the walls of his home.

We slept well under mosquito netting on thin pads over bamboo caning as the floor of a guesthouse on stilts. Waking this morning, it was quite foggy as we peeked out a window right above our head onto a pond where the evening before we’d watched kids playing on bamboo rafts; today we saw only a white/gray vision punctuated by a two new blossoms from the water lilies.

Unbelievable landscape. If I painted you a picture, you’d think I was making it all up.

This evening we took a cab into central Hanoi. We went to a bookstore to get a guidebook—sadly my advance planning of buying a guidebook in Chicago worked well, but broke down when I left the guidebook in Chicago. We got a great book with history of Hanoi and I got a book on the 20-year new economic plan of Vietnam—a mixture of socialism and market economy. Seems to be working pretty well.

J and O

June 5, 2008

Back from the journey to the country. Very beautiful. This is a photo of the building I saw at the Ethnographic Museum on Sunday, but it is different than the guest house we stayed in last night.



The village where we stayed.


All buildings are on stilts. This is the view from our guest house’s first floor.



Jon

June 3, 2008

8:00 AM, A quick check in before heading off on a two day visit to a traditional Vietnamese village in the Mai Chau valley. Tonight we’ll be sleeping in a stilted, thatched roof building: the roof towers about 50-60’ above the ground. We think we’re well acclimated to the time zone change at this time. We’re sleeping near normal hours. Now we have to get acclimated to being in a RURAL place. Yikes. This may be the biggest change yet.

We’ll be without email. We’re packing light and keeping our room at the Oriental Palace. Likely the cell phone will not be working. We’ve been working on some writing here in preparation of the public program next week.

We have been feted and treated really well here. Our hosts had us to their home for dinner last night. Crowded street. Four story tall home. The first floor had only the kitchen and the dining room. Vertical living.

We’ve been meeting French and Vietnamese artists. And yesterday a Californian ceramicist who has long ties to Vietnam arrived to take part of the program too.
The previous description of traffic might have been improved by calling to mind the filmed bloodstreams that you will remember - all sorts of things moving fluidly in one direction without more than momentary stops.
More in a couple days.
Jon

Monday 6/2/2008

Actually taking a bit slower day today than the two days since our arrival. Jet lag is about cured.

Pretty much whatever you imagine about Hanoi is both right and wrong. This is a city on the make. Making itself over with amazing energy. It will double its population (to 6 million) on August 1 when many surrounding towns will be suddenly be incorporated into the city.

We've had a busy schedule so far. On Saturday we were met by our hosts of the Hanoi Ceramic Mural and did some planning and sightseeing and sipping coffee at a lakeside, French influenced cafe. Yesterday we spent the day touring more of Hanoi, visiting a ceramic village (imagine 2000 artists and artisans in one place about 15 miles out of the center of Hanoi, but still in the city). An amazing array of work, both traditional and non-traditional. IKEA and many other big box stores have stuff made here. Our entrepreneurial host in the village showed us his factory, including work being done on a mosaic with CPAG's logo in it. The logo is being done in a intriguing new technique for mosaic making that I will write up shortly. It is done entirely on WET clay.

There are virtually no street signs or traffic signals here. The traffic (scooters, cars, trucks, bikes, and pedestrians) move constantly in conditions that we would find nerve wracking, but that actually keep a great deal of traffic moving smoothly. Horns are used, but not in anger or frustration. Rather little taps that sound like "I see you, I want to be sure you see me". Roundabouts are the most anxiety producing for me (though I'm not driving) as all manner of traffic intersects going every which direction. Sunday night, 6 PM, construction sites going with cranes, smaller scale projects running everywhere, 3 million Hanoi residents with 6 million scooters may be a joke here, but I’m not sure its a joke.


Jon

It's Saturday Night Here

And we're on the ground and well. 12 hours earlier that Chicago at any point.

No accidents, no incidents. Long trip followed by a fine arrival.

More when I'm slightly more coherent.

Jon