Viet Nam News
At least seven villages and streets in Viet Nam have murals, including Phung Hung Street in Ha Noi. Murals have become popular in Ha Noi in recent years and making the streets more beautiful is a concern for residents and those in the fine arts circle.
Artist Luong Xuan Doan, deputy-head of the Viet Nam Fine Arts Association, shares his opinion about murals in Ha Noi.
Mural paintings have been in Ha Noi for a few years but now they have become more popular. In your opinion, what is a mural painting?
We drew political posters and slogans on walls when we were at war against the French and Americans. This shows that murals appeared in Ha Noi a long time ago, not recently. People accepted them. I think those paintings bring into play the national resistance.
However, this is quite different from current murals. One mural was initiated by South Korean artists in Tam Thanh Village in the central province of Quang Nam. The project has continued in Phung Hung Street in Ha Noi. It is a new movement in the city.
What do you think about the movement?
The fine arts circle has never been that concerned with murals because there are too many streets to be painted. Many people simply think that murals help make public spaces in Ha Noi more beautiful. I know that not only every corner in the city has been painted but this movement has spilled into outskirts districts like Chuong My and Dan Phuong.
The painters are all kinds of amateur and unqualified artists. This leads to murals of different quality across the city. There is a mural in locality featuring a copy of a painting by late artist Bui Xuan Phai, with his signature. Does this mean to support fake and copied paintings? Plus, there are localities painted with the murals that are not suitable for the area. These unsuitable murals destroy the landscape of the locality.
Ha Noi is narrow thanks to the rapid development of buildings. So please don’t pollute quiet and beautiful streets with visual art.
In some localities, the local community spends their own money to hire artists to paint murals on blank walls and rubbish dumps. What do you think about this?
Visual art does not mean colour. I can’t imagine how Ha Noi would look if it was painted disorderly with various mixed colours and different subjects. At present, the mural movement is developing spontaneously. It not only beautifies Ha Noi but has also impacted the city’s architecture. We need to make the streets clean and green first.
Ha Noi streets with green trees just need a pastel colour for walls to make people relax.
There are some good street paintings. Aren’t you being too critical?
Some good murals are in Phung Hung Street and the ceramic road along the Red River dyke in Ha Noi. I think we are in a trial phase and we should be careful about how we develop it. Some experts are still worried the ceramic road and the long colourful painting with different subjects is a visual impairment for traffic police. In the last few years, the ceramic road has become degraded. Some sections of the murals along the road are very ugly.
Phung Hung Street is also a trial. Artists didn’t paint directly on the walls in the street. We should not do something to damage the cultural space of Ha Noi. I don’t think I’m being conservative or critical but we need to respect our heritage which our ancestors handed down.
Vietnamese traditional village architecture is fading out amid rapid urbanisation. Change must happen but it should ensure harmony between new and old. In other countries, street art is also developing. But they are also careful with public works. They have a plan and spaces to develop street art.
A street artwork must be beautiful and suit the public space. We should stop to review and make a comprehensive appraisement to have effective management. If we are not careful, murals will be cultural rubbish. — VNS