Bridge to become open-air gallery

The Long Bien Bridge Festival opens this weekend with more events and
performers than ever, according to festival founder and organiser Nguyen
Nga.

Nga, an overseas Vietnamese living in
France , is busy completing final preparations for the festival, to be
entitled Dragon Bridge .

The festival will be
closed to motor vehicle traffic and will become an outdoor art gallery,
featuring an exhibition of contemporary arts, including paintings by
disabled children and children affected by Agent Orange, as well as
woodblock art and a collection of kites by artisans from Hanoi and the
northern province of Hai Duong.

The festival
will also feature an exhibition of photographs, documents and other
artefacts depicting national defence over the past 10 centuries.
Throughout the length of the 1,682m bridge, it will be divided into ten
sections representing the 10 centuries (1010-2010) of Hanoi , each
section brought to life by diverse art forms, antiquities and costumes,
representing the lifestyles of the people of the time.

" Long Bien Bridge is alive," said Nga. "It's not only in the
memory of Hanoians, but it is also the bridge of the resistance, the
bridge of pains and sufferings, the bridge of happiness, the bridge of
loves, and the bridge of peace and freedom.

"It's
the flesh and the blood of the Hanoians, an umbilical cord between past
and present, between Hanoi , the country, and the world."

For the festival, the bridge will be divided into three areas. The
eastbound side of the bridge (the northern span) will become the
Bridge of Memories and will symbolise people of courage. The
eastbound side (the southern span) will be decorated with the flags of
70 countries and territories and animated by street performers.
Symbolising peace and friendship, this side will be called "The Bridge
of Dreams".

The highlight of the festival will be a
concert and light show on the bridge on Nov. 21, to be broadcast live on
television. Two musical pieces composed by French musicians as gifts
for the Long Bien Festival – On the Long Bien Bridge and See Hanoi –
will be presented by artists from Vietnam National Academy of Music and
the Flonflons troupe from France and Belgium .

The festival's general director, People's Artist Le Hung, said, "The
designer of Long Bien Bridge is also the designer of the Eiffel
Tower , which is a world-famous tourist attraction, so why we can't
turn Long Bien Bridge into a bridge for tourism? The festival
was initiated with that goal in mind, so I agreed to be the general
director of the event."

During the event, the organising board will also raise funds for flood victims in the central region./.

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Photos capture bridge's essence

Long Bien Bridge , famous for its unique architecture and long
history, has been an inspiration for many artists zoith , One of the
latest American photographer Douglas Jardine.

He
displays his black-and-white photos of the bridge until on Nov. 12 at an
exhibition titled Long Bien Bridge – The Connection at Maison
des Arts, Van Mieu Street , Hanoi .

Hanoi 's
Long Bien Bridge was built in 1903 by French architect Gustave
Eiffel, the man who, 14 years, earlier, designed the Eiffel tower.

In fact the iron latticework used on the bridge reflects the style of the Eiffel tower.

When built, the bridge was called the Doumer Bridge , after Paul
Doumer – the Governor General of French Indochina and later the French
president. At the time, it was one of the longest bridges in Asia with
a length of 1,682m.

During the American War, the
bridge was the highest-priority target in northern Vietnam for US
bombers. This was because all supplies moving by rail from China and
Hai Phong crossed into the city over the bridge.

The
first bombing raids in August, 1967 dropped three of the bridge's 19
spans into the river. From that date until January, 1973, the bridge was
repeatedly bombed and repaired.

But despite putting
the bridge out of commission for long periods of time, the US never
succeeded in fully halting the flow of supplies into the city, which
continued to move over an improvised network of pontoons, bamboo rafts,
and other makeshift devices.

Nguyen Nga, owner of
Maison des Arts, said she hoped the bridge will remain a place of
cultural and artistic importance, linking Vietnam to countries
across the world.

"The bridge spans the banks of the
Hong (Red) River, it also spans the banks of memory and history," says
Jardine. "When we stand on the bridge, we are connected to the past and
we gaze at the future."

Jardine, 34, who is married to
a Hanoian woman, now works as director of Academic Affairs at the
Faculty of International Studies at Hanoi University .

Jardine visits Long Bien Bridge four or five times a week to
enjoy the view and take photos of the bridge and the life around it.
With his black-and-white photography, he likes to capture people close
up.

Sometimes, they don't want to be photographed, so he spends time talking to them to capture their stories./.

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