International Photo Biennale Hanoi’23 – City of Hue, Architecture of Eternity

This series has been presented at the International Photo Biennale Hanoi in 2023 at the exhibition “IN SEARCH OF THE LOST TIME”.

Quang Lam’ artist statement :

There are places where architecture and urban planning are not only shaped by the needs of the Present but also by the beliefs of a life beyond.

This photographic series is imbued with this philosophy that shaped Hue, the imperial city in central Vietnam, founded only recently in the 19th century by the Nguyen dynasty.

Its construction follow the rules of Nature, those of Feng Shui:

Oriented on the cardinal points, the city has established the palaces in the North and the mausoleums in the South separated by the Perfume River and by taking into account the position of the mountains and the rivers populated by fabulous animals, such as the Dragon, the Tiger.

The gardens draw the Universe with ponds of water lilies, filled with carps reflecting the permanent renewal and the abundance of the place. On the coast, the mangroves with their twisted trees in the shape of bonsai betray a harsh climate, with heat and storms incessantly succeeding each other, and the tragic past of the Vietnam War where almost all the Forbidden City has been destroyed.

Yet serenity reigns Hue.

Started in 2014, this photographic work is not a topological catalog of the region of Hue but tends to make all this cosmology perceived internally, like a slow diffusion from the visible to the invisible. The color hues chosen for the photos highlight this erosion of matter to extract its immaterial essence.

This project emphasizes in particular the worship of ancestors. They are always present in daily life, for which it is necessary to prepare the continuation of the life beyond. The imperial mausoleums and tombs, from the humblest to the most oversized, mix Christian and Buddhist religions in a mosaic of multicolored patterns.

Nowadays the most expensive ones, with a price of a real house, are financed by the overseas Vietnamese people who still fulfill their Confucian duty from far away.

Thus the city of Hue continues to perpetuate spiritual precepts by new constructions or renovations that transform its own space-time into an Architecture of Eternity.

More insights

Read the Review of the series “City of Hue, Architecture of Eternity”