The third annual VFCD is organized by RMIT University Vietnam in collaboration with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Vietnam National Institute of Culture and Arts (VICAS) and COLAB Vietnam. In 2019, it was organized for the first time under the name of Vietnam Festival of Media & Design – a festival that focuses on Hanoi and directly supports the City as a new member of the Creative Cities Network of UNESCO. From 2020, the Organizing Committee has decided to expand the festival scale to the whole country with the desire to honor the breakthrough creative power of Ho Chi Minh City and the ancient capital of Hue, in addition to Hanoi’s cultural features and creativity.
Sharing on this year’s theme, Professor Julia Gaimster, Dean of the School of Communication and Design at RMIT University said: “The creative industries are facing new challenges – the post-Covid-19 world will not be the same and we all need to think about what the ‘new normal’ will look like. We need creative and innovative thinkers to find those solutions. Therefore, VFCD hopes to be a forum where people can discuss these challenges and find possible solutions.”
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Thu Phuong, Deputy Director of the Vietnam National Institute of Culture and Arts Studies (VICAS), expects that this year’s festival will create a stronger creative influence among young people, as well as small, medium, and micro enterprises – which are the central subjects creating core values and driving forces for creativity.
Similar to last year’s festival, this year’s audience can continue to experience VFCD almost entirely online through the festival’s social media channels and other digital platforms with a series of activities and events that are visionary, practical and suggestive, looking to a creative future, honoring the cultural identity of Vietnam.
The festival offers a variety of activities in various forms and themes with many interesting interactive and online activities taking place online and in person. The content of exchanges, contests, podcast series, and exhibitions spans many fields from traditional to modern, from art, photography to cinema, cultural archives…
An activity that takes place throughout the festival program is a digital community art campaign called To_morrow (To the Future). The message of this activity is What will you create to send to the future? Vietnam has just gone through a period of social distancing that lasted several months, and the isolation has had a significant impact on each individual. However, in periods of ups and downs, people always persevere through adversity, because, for a long time, creativity has always been the foundation of evolution. By contributing a new individual idea to a large group, we can join hands to build a more optimistic future.
The contest ‘Creativity: A Game Changer’ is a playground for students from all fields to awaken the creative potential of young people and celebrate the innovation of applying technology to solve marketing problems in real-life situations.
The online workshop series of ‘Creativity! Open!” revolves around the latest creative trends in architecture, branding; copyright and art appropriation; film and sports industries; explores the role creative education plays in diverse contexts.
Whether in the past, present or future, traditional art will always need to be preserved and developed. This is one of the messages of two online seminars “Folklore in contemporary times” and “Digital folk – Folklore on a digital platform”.
When traditional art needs to be preserved, especially in the modern era, a series of podcasts or radio shows called “Digital Archives of Culture and Art” and “The Future of Sustainable Design in Vietnam” will be broadcast in turn to provide information to interested audiences.
Under the condition that the pandemic situation is under control and mass gathering activities are allowed to return, the “offline” tour called “Hanoi City Walk” will take participants to visit familiar streets to learn more about the Capital through the ages, discover the cultural and historical stories of the thousand-year-old city.
In addition, the Festival also offers workshops (short-term training sessions), online discussions on copyright; film issues and education and training in the perspective of the Covid-19 era; seminars on pure Vietnamese issues; sustainable fashion, etc.
Ms. Pham Thi Thanh Huong, Head of Culture Department of UNESCO Office in Hanoi, said that VFCD has been successful in connecting stakeholders in the cultural and creative industry over the past two years, and she continues to place high expectations for this year’s show. She believes that this year’s VFCD will continue to attract the community, becoming even more diverse thanks to the talents of all participants, especially young people with their digital communication capacity and creativity.
V.H