Exhibition on hawkers and shouting on Hanoi’s streets held in Da Nang

Samuel Delamaziere, Acting Director of French Institute of Vietnam in Da Nang, speaks at the launch of the exhibition“Hawkers and the Shouting on the Streets of Hanoi” in Da Nang on August 19. (Photo: VNA)

An exhibition entitled “Hawkers and the Shouting on the Streets of Hanoi” is underway at the Da Nang Museum of Fine Arts in the central city of Da Nang until September 11.

Launched on August 19, the exhibition is co-held by the French Institute of Vietnam in Da Nang, the French Institute for Oriental Studies (EFEO), and the Da Nang Museum of Fine Arts.

It introduces a collection of sketches, paintings, and watercolors between 1925 and 1929 made by fifteen students of the Indochina Fine Arts School and their teacher, Ferdinand de Fénis, according to Samuel Delamaziere, Acting Director of French Institute of Vietnam in Da Nang.

The artists skillfully depict the small world of hawkers walking through the streets of the capital under the first rays of sunlight of the day with a variety of fruit and vegetable stalls, confectionery, and snacks.

Delamaziere said the uniqueness of the drawings is in the attractive depiction of the dishes sold on street corners and the capture of the musicality in the sales barks used to invite customers.

Sometimes, with only a few outlines, the deep humanity of the paintings is also exuded through the vibrancy of the street scenes, the elegant swaying motion to keep the good, or the inclined posture of the hawker taking ice cream for two impatiently waiting children.

These hawkers mainly came from the villages surrounding Hanoi, which have now merged into the capital. Besides street vendors, there were also people who specialised in buying and exchanging all kinds of used or waste items.

Scenes of the daily life of Hanoians emerge through installations, light boxes, or displayed paintings. A delicate combination of photographs, sound effects, and graceful sketches brings the scent of nostalgia./.

VNA