Student exhibition brings new energy to city life

Tiếng Việt

Student exhibition brings new energy to city life

RMIT Design students are showcasing their fresh takes on urban transformation and human connections at a Museum of Ho Chi Minh City exhibition.

Featuring over 20 works by final-year students from RMIT University’s Bachelor of Design Studies program, the Saigon: Interplay showcase is the result of a three-month project between the Museum of Ho Chi Minh City and RMIT focusing on the transformation of Vietnam’s biggest metropolis.

The Saigon: Interplay exhibition is open until 21 March 2021 at the Museum of Ho Chi Minh City.

With the mutual aim of connecting the city and its people, the ideas presented range from community video and photography projects to public art work displays, motorbike parades, bicycling tours and other novel ideas.

Prior to coming up with this project, RMIT lecturers have found that technological and media innovations over the past 20 years have left museums around the world questioning traditional models of artifact collection, conservation, exhibition and publication.

Thus, museums are turning towards their immediate surroundings to ask how they can renew their local ties and refresh their bonds of community. The RMIT student works were developed in response to this transformative context.

Part of the Saigon: Interplay exhibition, “Monsters of Saigon” by RMIT student Bui Cam Vy proposes a public showcase that exhibits tò he figurines made by children, with the purpose of acknowledging and sharing feelings about traumas.

The Museum of Ho Chi Minh City management commended that the student projects put forward new ways for the museum to cooperate with the different communities that together form the evolving face of Ho Chi Minh City today.

“The works on display present really creative and new ideas that touch on various aspects of life. The students created these works and they are also the ones to benefit the most from this connection with our museum,” a representative of the museum said.

“AĂÂ” by Truong Thanh An, Kee Zi Sing and Tran Bich Tuyet Nhi aims to help people recognise the hidden identity of Saigon through an interactive public event.

The current exhibition is the continuation of a collaboration between the museum and RMIT that began two years ago, as part of the University’s Studio•V initiative.

By connecting the RMIT curriculum with industry partners, government agencies, NGOs and community groups, Studio•V encourages students to develop projects in support of social and environmental issues that impact Vietnam today.

RMIT Dean of School of Communication & Design Professor Julia Gaimster said: “The Studio•V collaborations are an important part of our continuing commitment to engage in rich conversations about design in Vietnam with leading local, regional and national partners.”

“The Museum of Ho Chi Minh City in particular offers our students exceptional and meaningful design opportunities,” she said. “Such projects help our students become more work-ready and socially responsible, which are increasingly important values that future employers look for.”

The Saigon: Interplay exhibition is open every day from 8am to 5pm until 21 March 2021 at the Museum of Ho Chi Minh City (65 Ly Tu Trong Street, Ben Nghe Ward, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City).

“Saigon Slumber Party” by Le Cao My Phuong is a free-entry fashion event that invites people to share their self identity in their most comfortable outfit.

The “Than” project by Nguyen Thai Hoang (pictured in the lower half of the image) encourages people to take photos to preserve the cultural identity of the city’s neighbourhoods.