VietNamNet Bridge – There are scant documents about Vietnamese culture and art at Guimet Museum, said Hubert Laot, auditorium manager of Guimet Museum, which specializes in Asian art and culture in Paris, France.
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Hubert Laot, auditorium manager of Guimet Museum – Photo: Nguyen Vinh |
Speaking to Daily on the sidelines of a talk show on Vietnamese folk music at Hoa Sen University in HCMC on Saturday, Laot noted documentation about Vietnamese culture and art at Guimet Museum is far less than other Asian countries such as China and India.
The “Guimet Museum comes to Vietnam” talk show focused on the message of promoting Vietnam’s culture and art at Guimet Museum and in France as a whole.
Westerners know a lot about Indian and Chinese cultures when it comes to exploring Asia, he said, adding it is always easy to find documentation about Indian and Chinese cultures.
The show also featured folk music performances by Huong Thanh, a Vietnamese singer who now lives in France, British guitarist Jason Carter and other traditional music instrumentalists from Hanoi.
In his trip to Vietnam this time, Laot visits the southern region and learn more about the place where cai luong (traditional southern opera) and don ca tai tu (southern folk music) were born.
Built in 1889, Guimet Museum is the biggest museum about Asian art and culture in Paris.
In recent years, the museum has undertaken several activities to present Vietnamese culture to the world, including organizing cai luong performances, specialized exhibitions on the former imperial citadel of Thang Long and Cham culture, and screening Vietnamese movies. But according to Laot, such activities are not enough compared to Vietnam’s enormous cultural and art heritages.
VNS’ Bach Lien talks with Hubert Laot, artistic director of the museum,who visited Ha Noi this week to introduce the museum to the Vietnamesepublic.
The museum is home to precious Vietnamese collections. What objects related to Vietnamese art can visitors see at your museum?
Visitors to the museum can view a great collection of Champa art. Wealso have some dragon sculptures. One of the main attractions is agolden wooden statue of Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara with one thousandarms dating from the Le – Nguyen dynasty at the end of 18th and early19th centuries. It was donated in 1889 by Gustave Dumoutier [assistantto Resident-General of Tonkin Paul Bert, and also the inspector of theFranco-Vietnamese school system].
Exhibitions have been held at the museum to honour Vietnamese art and introduce it to the French public.
In 2005, we organised an exhibition on Champa art with the collaboration of museums in Da Nang and HCM City.
More recently in 2014, we organised an exceptional exhibitionfocusing on a fantastic creature: the dragon. The show was entitled TheFlight of the Dragon.
The exhibition featured many works representing the legendary animalthat is the source of countless stories. It invited visitors to travelthrough the ages, from the Bronze Age (around 1,500 BC) until the lastroyal dynasty of the Nguyen in 1945, and to observe the evolution ofthis mythical creature that has crossed millennia.
Some of these objects had never been displayed outside Viet Nambefore. We worked with the Viet Nam National Museum and were able toselect some of their masterpieces. It was also an opportunity to showsome of our own collection as only about ten per cent of it is displayedat any one time.
As artistic director of the museum, you also organiseconcerts and films showcasing Vietnamese culture at the museum. Can youtell us about them?
Yes, I’ve worked at the museum for 15 years. Since 2001, I have beenorganising diverse traditional Vietnamese music concerts, screeningVietnamese films and holding conferences about Vietnamese music.
I have worked with some talented Vietnamese music researchers livingin France, including Professor Tran Quang Hai, son of Professor Tran VanKhe who died last week, and more recently, I have worked with singerHuong Thanh.
In 2013, we organised a cai luong show for the very first time, andThanh invited several old artists. It was a great success and sold out.Some months later, cai luong was recognised as an Intangible CulturalHeritage of Humanity. It was a great pleasure for us because we felt wehad done something useful.
How were those exhibitions and concerts welcomed by audiences?
They were highly acclaimed. Our spectators were very happy.
We welcomed people from different countries, and they were happy toenjoy authentic traditional music performed by talented Vietnameseartists.
Most of the time, the only Vietnamese music they have heard are thesongs played in Vietnamese restaurants, which is different from thetraditional music played at the museum.
I am glad to see that more and more Vietnamese people are coming tothe shows. During a cai luong show in 2013, I was touched to see someold Vietnamese people in the audience who cried a lot. I think themelodies reminded them of their childhoods and homeland.
Is Vietnamese culture well-known in Paris?
No, it is relatively unknown, but it is starting to draw moreinterest. There are about 400,000 Vietnamese people living in France,but it’s quite a closed community. They have organised many culturalevents, but not many French people attend them.
Over the last few years, we have made more efforts to introduceVietnamese culture to the French public. I hope that more Vietnameseartists will visit France to perform and promote their rich musicalindustry.
Do you have any more projects planned to help promote Vietnamese culture in Paris?
I hope to invite artists from the central region of Viet Nam to perform at the museum.
We have invited artists from the North and the South, but not artists from the centre.
I would like them to perform dances from their region. I’ve heard that the centre of Vietnam is famous for its dances.
We have organised several Vietnamese concerts with singing, but traditional dancing is still very rare.
During this trip, I’ve discovered more about Vietnamese culture, and I want to enrich the Vietnamese collections at the museum.
SGT/VNS
Hubert Laot: Little documentation for Vietnam culture at Guimet
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