This is the third and the last performance art show in Dao Anh Khanh’s “Flow of 1000 Years” program. The two others were held in 2009.

This is the third and the last performance art show in Dao Anh Khanh’s “Flow of 1000 Years” program. The two others – “Convergence of Light” and “Bridge of Sound” – were held in 2009.

Artist Dao Anh Khanh.

“Tree of Life” is a show of performance art, music, dance, video art and light techniques. The show will take place on 1km section of dike in Ngoc Thuy ward, Long Bien district, Hanoi and the nearby 5,000sq.m Dao Anh Khanh Studio.

The two major installation works of “Tree of Life” have completed. The first work, entitled “Original energy”, includes 36 white tapering bamboo shoots of 9-15m high, 3-4m white and is made of bamboo, iron frames and covered by plastic. This work has been completed and it is located on Ngoc Thuy dike.

When the show begins, these bamboo shoots will be lit up, with 36 girls dancing inside, symbolizing Hanoi’s 36 old streets.

“Among them, one is not a woman but he also has long hair, and that’s me,” Dao Anh Khanh revealed.

Khanh and 35 girls will move and dance inside these bamboo shoots for 45 minutes to show the energy that they earn from the heaven and the earth. Besides “Original Energy” will be hundreds of gonfalons painted by Dao Anh Khanh featuring four seasons.

The second work is “Balance”. That is a bamboo-made human-shaped statue of 30m high placed inside Dao Anh Khanh studio. This statue symbolizes Hanoi in the past and at present and the human’s non-stop moves.

The show is scheduled on the evening of October 15, with two parts. The first 45-minute show will be held inside Dao Anh Khanh studio and open for special guests only. The next 45-minute show will take place on Ngoc Thuy Dike and open for free. A big screen will be placed on Ngoc Thuy Dike to broadcast the first part of the show to the common audience.

Music in “Tree of Life” is composed by Xuan Son, Tri Minh and Hue city Trinh. Dao Anh Khanh will sing with Tung Duong, Ha Dinh Huy troupe and five Danish singers. Nearly 300 artists from several countries will join the show. Painter Phuong Vu Manh and Sharon (USA) will perform body art on 12 models.

Dao Anh Khanh said that after “Tree of Life”, he will be able to organize a similar show in the next ten years. He planed to hold such show in Hoa Binh, around 50km from Hanoi.

He disclosed that the total funding for three shows in “Flow of 1000 years” is around 4 billion dong ($200,000). Over half of this is provided by the Danish Embassy in Vietnam.

Installation works in “Tree of Life” will be on displayed until October 18.

PV