history

Biennale The Wrong 2023 – Project Air Skylen

The Art Project – Air Skylen is participating the Biennale The Wrong 6th Edition, within the Pavilion ANIMA “Directory”, curated by Tam Nguyen, with advisories from Mai Huyen Chi & Xuan Ha and support from Duyen Le and Lien Nguyen

Review of the Art Project Air Skylen

This text has been written by the curator Tam Nguyen for the catalog of the pavilion ANIMA “Directory”

“Air Skylen (2022) embodies Quang Lam’s long-term research into the development of the Vietnamese airline industry.

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Interiors of Steamliner Paul Lecat, Company Messageries Marititimes

The steamliner began his career on September 22, 1912 on the Far East line. In 1914, it was, with its 13,000 gross tonnage, the largest and most luxurious of the Company’s liners, the only one able to offer “luxury” cabins, equivalent to the North Atlantic lines.

Some excerpts of the travel story on Jeanne Marie Méchin aboard the Paul Lecat in November 1923 between Marseille and Saigon. These letters take a month to reach France till the France-Indochina air mail link reduced the time to one week.

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Les Messageries Maritimes – the Far-East Line to Haiphong – Hanoi

Text from the leaflet

HAIPHONG, the port of the French Protectorate of Tongking, is situated at the far end of the Gulf of Tong-king, on the Cua-Cam, 90 minutes from the sea, and is 8229 miles from Marseilles. Its population is about 75.000, of which the French and Chinese number 15.000.

Fine streets and spacious boulevards bordered by brilliant flowering trees and shrubs give the town a most cheerful appearance. Among its most important buildings are the Residency,

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Terra Utopia from the Incognita

At the Art Institute of South-East Asia in Singapour , this series Terra Utopia has been displayed within the exhibition XEM – Meta Far-East. It shows how can the perception of the “Far” remain or evolve, from the antique geographical point of view to some more diverse perspectives as the colonization period to the current impact of the climate change.

These photos look like aerial landscapes of unknown coastal territories. Far East Asia was a terra incognita to be discovered.

[…]

Air Vietnam – History of the airline company creation in 1950

Extracts of the article in Air France Magazine 1950
by MAURICE LEMOINE, general secretary of Air France

It was one of the first commercial enterprises in the young state to associate French interests with those of the government. Vietnamese. The latter holds half of the capital, the other half being distributed among various French shareholders, first and foremost Air France. From multiple points of view, this Air Vietnam creation is worthy of attention.

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Air Vietnam – News in the 70s

Nguyen Tan Trung, president of Air Vietnam, has been named chairman of the Board of Directors of the Republic of Vietnam flag carrier. His nomination by board members to the post, which has traditionally been held by a cabinet minister, has been approved by the Vietnamese Government.

Calling 1974 ‘‘a year of challenge for everyone in the
airline business,” Mr. Nguyen Tan Trung said he was persuaded to accept the
additional responsibility with Air Vietnam in consideration of the national
interest and in view of the prospects of the development of the company.

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Origin of Hue song at the court of Annam

This text comes from the book Mémoires de Son Excellence Huynh Con dit Đan Tường by Jean-Jacnal written 1924.
This biography of a former Minister of Rites at the Court of Annam contains historical details of his life and has an interesting description of music at the Court.

“Every night, we brought in singers. So little has been written about this category of people that no doubt I will be allowed to give some details about their life,

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Map Postcard Hanoi

Theses postcards written in early 20th century are unique archive sent from Ha Noi to different capitals of the world (Paris, Beijing, New York, Bruxelles, Hong Khong) give an historical value to the artworks

These conceptual maps are related to the colonialism epoch of  Viet Nam in the early 20th century.
Hanoi is drawn in transparency over the foreign city meaning the lost of sovereignty of Hanoi at the expense of the external powers.

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Air Skylen – Airports

For the creative event “Thiet Ke & Cong Nghe” in HaNoi , a whole concept of an airline company, named AIR SKYLEN has been presented

Airlines are the symbols of the technology’s level of a country. It also shares the values also international connections and exchanges.

AIR SKYLEN derived also from the term Skyline, which is the
apparent juncture of earth and sky, the horizon.  It is often used to describe the silhouette of
cities skyscrapers against the sky.

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Balance of Chaos

The Greek etymology of the word
Chaos means a fracture or a gap. In mathematics, Chaos Theory studies the
behavior of systems that are very sensitive to initial conditions, a phenomenon
generally illustrated by “the butterfly effect”.

This term was used Edward Lorenz,
American mathematician and meteorologist to describe the theoretical basis of
weather and climate predictability, which is based on this idea that small
causes may have large effects in general.

Because the photographer Quang Lam assisted to a recent destruction
of colonial villa in Saigon which has survived for one hundred year of turmoil,

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