"LÊN NGÀN TRANSFORMS THE CREATIVE ENERGY OF CULTURAL HERITAGE, COMBINED WITH CONTEMPORARY ART, INTO ENTERTAINMENT, COMMERCE, AND WITH A LITTLE LUCK, A BEGINNING"

The Opening Ceremony and Parade of Hanoi Creative Design Festival 2024, under the theme CREATIVE CROSSROADS, is a community art program inspired by the urban memory of Thăng Long and the cultural transformations of Hanoi over time. The event combines opening rituals, musical performances, traditional arts, contemporary creativity, and street parade activities, creating a space of encounter between heritage and the future. From the stage of the Hanoi Opera House to Tràng Tiền Street, the program opens up a rich visual, sonic, and communal experience, where Hanoi’s creative spirit is awakened from the depth of its indigenous culture.

“Facing the Infinite” is compelling in its engagement with human nature and fragile impermanence. The work is able to combine subtlety and expression, creative force and contrast, refinement in performance form, and sincerity. In this project, members of the artistic team have the opportunity to create and apply experiments that can offer deeper insights, expand ways of thinking, and stimulate diverse discussions around the techniques and formal qualities of traditional Vietnamese stage choreography.

Lên Ngàn is honored to participate in the programme CÙNG NHAU GIỮ NƯỚC with the opening performance VỌNG ÂM at the Thăng Long Imperial Citadel. VỌNG ÂM opens up a surreal stage space where the past, present, and future coexist. Through images of Lý and Trần dynasty costumes, cavalry formations, and inspiration from traditional Tuồng theatre, the work evokes the spirit of survival in the face of adversity, gratitude toward the heroes who sacrificed themselves for the nation, and profound lessons on righteousness and human conduct.

Young contemporary artists in Vietnam work within a rapidly changing social context that still lacks a professional foundation and a sustainable support ecosystem. Since 2019, Lên Ngàn has focused on accompanying this generation of artists, and in 2023 initiated the interdisciplinary project Thanh Cảnh to encourage individual voices, experimentation, and creative commitment. The project emphasizes artists’ determination, integrity, and aesthetic knowledge as the core factors shaping artistic value, regardless of whether their circumstances are favorable or challenging.