The 7th Hà Nội Art Connecting opened at University of Industrial Fine Art on October 29 with participation of Vietnamese and international artists. Photo courtesy of HAC organisation

HÀ NỘI — More than one hundred international and Vietnamese artists attend to various activities during the six day-art festival in Hà Nội.

The 7th Hà Nội Art Connecting (HNC) festival is an annual project artistic series organised by Asia Art Link comprising programmes, workshops and international exhibitions.

Its goal is to develop and expand opportunities for professional, creative artistic exchange and integration, particularly in the field of visual arts.

This connection is fostered through interactions and cultural exchanges between local and international artists, universities both domestically and abroad, individual and group artist projects, as well as between creative professionals and the art-loving public, facilitated by practical professional activities.

"It is not a long time for HNA organisation, but the event is an opening space to welcome international artists to Việt Nam," said artist Lương Xuân Đoàn, President of Việt Nam Fine Arts Association at the opening ceremony on Tuesday. 

"It shows that Vietnamese artists have proactively promoted international integration and co-operation with international artists.

"HAC makes its contribution to celebrate the 75th anniversary of University of Industrial Art this year."

The event brings over 130 artists including 50 international artists from 19 countries including Thailand, Malaysia, India, South Korea, China, Japan, Germany, United States, Canada, Mexico and Japan.

Vietnamese veteran artists including Lê Huy Tiếp, Phan Cẩm Thượng and Đặng Tiến also attended the event. 

Tiếp is a master in the field of graphic printing, promoting artistic exchange projects and programmes between Vietnamese and international printmaking artists. At the HAC, Tiếp will take on the role of guiding a group of domestic and foreign artists on creativity in the field of graphic printing.

During the event, the artists have turned the campus at the university into a huge workshop to create artworks using different media, such as painting, printing art, sculpture and ceramics.

The event also includes art talks on Japanese lacquer and digital sculpture in use and a seminar on applied art in international integration. 

HAC was born out of a collaboration between the University of Fine Arts and Asian Art Link. It has grown rapidly over recent years, featuring an increasing number of artists and countries participating.

Even though it’s been only two years since the first edition in 2016, there were only five countries and 20 international artists joining. 

Founder of Asia Art Link and a chain event, HAC project, artist Trịnh Tuân is renowned in both the Vietnamese and international art communities as a master of lacquer painting.

Since 2005, Trịnh Tuân has positively contributed to promoting Vietnamese art’s connection to the world. Malaysian artist, Ng Bee, is co-founder of Asia Art Link, they both aim to foster artistic exchange and collaboration among artists from all continents, offering insights into each nation's cultural heritage through shared artistic pursuits. 

At the opening ceremony, Tuân also handed over his position at the Asian Art Link artist Trần Mạnh Linh. Linh is a lecturer at University of Industrial Fine Arts and a skilful artist with various materials of lacquer, water colour, acrylic and oil on canvas. He has made contributions to the success of HAC series over many years. 

Works by the artists will be on a display at Hà Nội Museum on November 3. — VNS