Painter Minh Dam (left) and Polish Ambassador to Vietnam Wojciech Gerwel (right) at the opening ceremony. (Photo: Minh Thu/Vietnam+)Hanoi (VNA) - Minh Dam’s exhibit Fantasy on Polish Airs is running at the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum, 66 Nguyen Thai Hoc street, Ba Dinh district.
The event which takes place from June 14-18 includes numerous watercolor paintings of landscapes, streets, and people in Poland, where he has been for many years. The show also features works from a number of other European nations he has visited, as well as Vietnam, where he was born.
Minh said that he had planned to release artworks relating to Poland for a long time.
"This exhibition is dedicated to the country in which I have spent most of my life. It has been 31 years filled with love and peace - and more to go! My watercolors depict what I love about Poland: beauty and peacefulness. I dedicate them to the place that has made me become who I am today”.
Exhibition of artist Minh Dam (Photo: Minh Thu/Vietnam+)Minh disclosed that he hopes that this exhibition would help bring the Polish cultural identity to Vietnam, where he was born.
Expats frequently have a sense of longing for their home country. Like Fryderyk Chopin, he composed his most unique compositions about Poland while residing in France," he said.
"For myself, when I travel to Vietnam, I enjoy introducing Vietnamese people to the beauty, culture, historical significance and unique aspects of Poland. However, whenever I am in Poland, I never forget that I am Vietnamese and make efforts to introduce my Polish counterparts about Vietnamese culture and history."
"Bringing these works to Vietnam, I hope that the audience will be able to experience the beauty of Poland through the eyes of a Polish-Vietnamese artist. Hopefully, although the geographical distance between the two countries cannot be changed, the distance between the two cultures and people will get closer."
Artist Minh was born in Hanoi and moved to Poland at the age of 7. He is one of the most influential watercolour painters in Poland. He is also the co-founder of the Polish Watercolor Association.
Minh actively participates in international art competitions and events, as well as opening workshops in Europe and China. In addition, he is involved in the fields of architecture, interior design and photography.
Polish watercolor painting has a history stretching back hundreds of years. However, up to now, there is no official organization based solely on watercolors. Therefore, since 2012, a group of artists in the capital Warsaw has come up with the idea of establishing a Watercolor Society with about 20 artists. I was selected to join that group.
Poland was one of the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with Vietnam in 1950.
During the challenging times of war and post-war reconstruction, Poland implemented countless bilateral co-operation projects in Vietnam. Some of these have grown to symbolise Polish-Vietnamese friendship – for instance the Polish-Vietnamese Friendship High School in Hanoi, the Polish-Vietnamese Friendship Hospital in Vinh, or the preservation and restoration of priceless monuments in Hoi An, Hue and My Son.
Through generations of such efforts, a vibrant and prosperous Vietnamese community in Poland has grown to become one of the largest in Europe. The interpersonal bonds that have arisen between the two nations over the past seven decades constitute a solid foundation for the development of our relations in the future.
Mutual contacts have been maintained at every political level, even in spite of adverse conditions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite the pandemic and the global economic crisis, the value of economic exchange has also been gradually increasing.
According to Polish statistics, trade turnover between Poland and Vietnam in 2020 reached 3.7 billion USD. For comparison, in 2019 it amounted to 3.5 billion USD, and in 2018, 3.3 billion USD. The EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), which entered into force in August last year, also offers great opportunities for further development of mutual economic relations./.
