Exhibition 'Green Journey': When communal houses are roofed with... beer cans

Cultural symbols of some ethnic groups in the Central Highlands appear with irony and bitterness. However, according to the author, these are not caricatures but metaphors of the stark reality of the fading cultural identity of some ethnic groups in the Central Highlands due to the impact of hydroelectric reservoirs.

1. That is the work Dragon Raft by Tran Tuan,One of the representative works of the Green Journey exhibition which opened on November 10 at the Vietnam University of Fine Arts (Hanoi).

“Art exhibitions that speak out against social issues are prone to being propaganda-heavy and lacking in artistic depth. That was our biggest challenge in the process of creating and organizing the exhibition. However, now that the exhibition is complete, I am satisfied with the way the artists convey strong messages through artistic metaphors and metonymies,” shared artist Tran Luong, curator of the Green Journey exhibition.

Dragon Raft by Tran Tuan

A typical example is Tran Tuan’s work “Rong Raft”, an installation displayed in the center of the exhibition room. In the work, the author recreates the image of a large communal house with a roof covered with beer cans, supported below by pieces of buoys and fragile oars.

According to the exhibition description of the work: Hydroelectric projects have relocated a series of villages of the Co Tu and Bru - Van Kieu people to new resettlement areas and with pre-built level 4 apartments in a series of similar architectural styles like "uniforms", completely foreign to the traditional house styles typical of the highlands.

The dugout canoe, formerly used to cross rivers and streams, is no longer useful because the water surface area is too large to use human strength to row...

2. However, that is only very sketchy information compared to the reality the author has seen.felt and conveyed into the work. Tran Tuan said: The living environment in the new place is not suitable for the thousand-year-old living habits, causing the residents of these villages to leave their homeland. What is brought along completely during the resettlement process is the story, legend or epic, that painful reality needs to be seen by the management agency.

According to Tran Tuan, it was the epic stories he heard from the beer halls in the resettlement area that inspired him to create the special communal house roof. The tin-leaf communal house roofs are like ripples that cut into the hearts of viewers in the author's deep voice telling about what he saw and felt in the Central Highlands.

Tuan continued: “According to the project schedule, we searched for topics and spent 20 days in the Central Highlands. However, witnessing the scene of people living in resettlement areas with corrugated iron roofs, consumer culture replacing gong culture, and communal houses being wiped out in new lands, I decided to spend 3 years in the highlands.”

“This theme will continue to follow me in my future creative journey. As long as the traditional cultural practices of the people are not properly respected, I will continue to create works like the communal house roof made of beer cans...” - Tran Tuan affirmed.

According to Sports and Culture