French artist films making of Ceramic Road

The 6km-long ceramic mosaic being created along the Hong (Red) River to adorn the Yen Phu dyke should serve as a tribute to the colourful journey that the capital city has taken over the past millennium.

Now, one French filmmaker will capture the creation of that tribute, filming the Vietnamese and international artists who are helping to make and record history, and present the film to the capital for it’s 1,000th anniversary in 2010.

Nathalie Kertchef, from the Image de Ville Cinema Festival in Aix-en-Provence in France, arrived in Hanoi last July to shoot the 150sq.m finished sections of the planned 6-km Ceramic Road. She also filmed the famous ceramic village of Bat Trang where artists found the materials.

The 6km-long dike will run from Au Co Avenue through Nghi Tam, Yen Phu, Tran Nhat Duat, Tran Quang Khai and Tran Khanh Du roads.

The ceramic mural will feature different sections, retracing historical periods of Vietnam, including a section for contemporary Hanoi painters, one for international artists, one for children and a highlight along the Chuong Duong Bridge.

Jacob Reymond was the first foreign artist invited to work on the project with his 10sq.m contemporary art ceramic mural installed on the dike earlier this month. This mural fresco starts at the road near the Phuc Xa stadium and runs towards the Long Bien Bridge.

Meeting of different minds

Capturing this work in the making, Kertchef has finished the first scenes (the pilot) of her film that runs for 26 minutes. On film so far, she has spoken with Nguyen Thu Thuy, a journalist at the Ha Noi Moi (New Ha Noi) newspaper and the mastermind of the project, a group of Vietnamese artists in the Tan Ha Noi art company who were determined to make the idea come true, and Reymond.

“What I want to show in my film is the meeting between Jacob and Thuy. That was the origin of this project, and also the meeting of the other artists,” says Kertchef.

“Within three years this project will generate the meeting and interbreeding of genders, nationalities, colours and history,” notes Kertchef.

“The artists create, share, educate, transmit and fascinate the public as they create outside on the streets on the wall around the city… with bicycles, cyclos and cars passing by, the artists become in turn ‘the object’. They stands there, in the middle of this urban swirl.”

Reymond, a painter and director of Image de Ville, has been attached to Viet Nam for more than 10 years.

“Taking part in the project is a gift for me. It’s a marvellous project that allows artists to create and bring beauty to the community. It is also an occasion for the public to come near to art in their daily lives,” says Reymond.

“What interests me in this project is that I can work on a very large format. Moreover, I can show my work in the streets and everybody can see my work… an artistic work in the streets… it provokes emotions. Some ten of thousands of people pass this road everyday,” he says, laughing.

Reymond’s mural is titled Boat and Eyes, and features personified boats to represent the essence of the Red River in the life of the city.

“I had never worked with ceramics before so I really enjoy the new techniques that I could learn with this work,” says Reymond.

How it all began

According to filmmaker Kertchef, the idea to film the making of the mural interested producer Bruno Jourdan, the general director of Image de Ville which organises an annual film festival on the city.

“One of the next themes of the festival will be art in the city. He asked me to shoot a pilot on the project of this 6-km mural.”

“I accepted this assignment immediately because for me, it was an occasion to come back to Hanoi that had seduced me since 1993. Of course, the notion of meeting Vietnamese and international painters working on the same project pleased me greatly. It has been a long time that I wished to make a film on Vietnamese contemporary painting,” she says.

The film will be presented to the public in France and in Vietnam in 2010 in honour of the capital city’s millennial anniversary celebrations.

Along with Reymond’s family, Kertchef is also looking for funds to support the film and the mural as France’s gift to Vietnam.