Vietnamese artists: Dinh Cong Dat

He is in all the trendy galleries and in all the trendy shops, his work is fun and I love fun! Enjoy his funkiness!

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My Christmas presents to you: Vive le Tour and God's Country

One of the best birthday presents I have ever got was a Louis Malle set from the FNAC , not only it had some of his best movies but it also had 2 jewels and now I am giving it to you as a Christmas Present!

Vive le Tour: a 1962 short film about the Tour de France that you can see here in 2 parts:

God's country: a documentary about Louis Malle's experience living with a small town in Minnesota during 1979. Louis Malle goes back 6 years later to see how people are doing and to film how a rural community has changed. Amazing! You can also see this docummentary on YouTube in 9 parts. I hope you enjoy it!

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On how Asia reminds me of my childhood: Excitement

Cycling around Asia is a great way to see the real life. You can go on an organized tour or you can go by yourself, most of the places are very safe and people are extremly curious about you.

When you cycle in small towns kids get extremely excited. Here's some of the situations:

• Moms with babies waiving at you, starting to teach the kid to say "Hello"
• Kids so little they don't even know what to do, they just stare at you with their mouth wide open.
• If you look at the front yard of the house, you might see little kids going to get their big brother because they want to go by the road and say hello to you.
• Kids screaming "Hello", "What is your name?", "Wellcome to Malaysia!".
• Kids picking up their old rusty bikes and racing you.
• Shy girls smilling at you and waiving from their bikes.
• Teenagers getting out of school and trying to block your way or do stupid things.
• And the most painfull but also the best, High fives! Yes, high fives are back.

When I was little every summer there was a race going on and they would go through my grandparent's house. We would be waiting for them for hourss, to see the cyclist, to cheer at them and to get the beach balls and other merchandising that they were giving away.

Going through the little villages and hearing the kids with their "hello, hello" made me think of what I looked like when I was little.


The picture that ilustrates this post was taken by somebody I don't remember with Max's camera during our trip from Saigon to Hanoi in Vietnam.

Here's other reasons why Asia reminds me of my childhood:
Everything is under construction and there are lots of flowers
Sun drying food and stone tables 
Poorly paved roads and reusing stuff

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Vietnamese painters: Nguyen Quang Huy

The cheap paintings (specially lacquers) in Vietnam fold up, they have been painted in small pieces so you can take them home inside your luggage. Nguyen Quang Huy's paintings don't fold up, they are big and powerful, as powerfull as vietnamese woman. They had to do everything during the 3 wars that took place in Vietnam in the last 80 years and they are kick ass people!

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Vietnamese painters: Tran Quang Huan

It is not correct to explain the reality of a country based on the artists that you see in the galleries but since I liked some of them, here's a selection if my favourite contemporary vietnamese artists. Number one is not for my favourite but for the most surprising one: Tran Quang Huan.

 

Thanks to the fantastic people at the Green Palm Gallery in Hanoi for their information!

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La norma

When I was little back in 1982 Norma was everywhere. My uncle had brochures, adhesives, pins,... the current situation with the ministry of education makes me thing that maybe we will need to bring Norma back... The world is backwards...

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On how Asia reminds me of my childhood - Reusing and pavement

Recycling or reusing: in the photo we see the kind of the rice crackers :-D It seems that before the crisis we were buying everything new and not thinking about second or third uses that things could have. Reusing old buckets seems to be the norm here.

Luang Prabang, Laos

Poorly paved roads: I love poorly paved road sides, they are so much more fun to walk on than perfectly paved ones! I love them!

Tuk-tuk on poorly paved road

Everything is under construction and lots of flowers
Sun drying food and stone tables

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