Hanoi’s Ceramic Road receiving complaints

People’s complaints about the Ceramic Road project along the Red River dike in Hanoi have urged the local People’s Council to ask the Hanoi People’s Committee to look into the huge project.
Dao Xuan Phuong, from the Department for Social and Cultural Issues of the Hanoi People’s Council, said that some experts are worried that the contents of ceramic paintings along the Red River dike are not suitable to the topics of the 1000th Thang Long – Hanoi anniversary.
Many local people have also complained that the logos of sponsors appear too frequently and are too large and that the dike walls are being raised, obstructing people’s views of the Red River.
The ceramic road along the Red River dike was initiated by journalist, painter Nguyen Thu Thuy in 2007 to celebrate the 1000th Thang Long – Hanoi anniversary in 2010. The Hanoi authorities approved this project, which is being implemented along 6km of dike by capital raised from the society.
Around 1,800sq.m of ceramic paintings have been completed, accounting for 28 percent of the total work volume. These paintings feature different topics about the history of Vietnam from the Dong Son civilisation to the Ly, Tran and Le dynasties, brocade patterns and contemporary paintings created by kids.
It is expected that by October 10, 2010 – the 1000th great anniversary of Thang Long – Hanoi, around 4.2km of dike from An Duong gate to the end of Tran Khanh Du street will have been covered by ceramic paintings.
However, complaints about the project have been coming more frequently.
Some people have said that the ceramic road is a big colourful painting to decorate the dike, not a vehicle to popularise major topics for celebrating the 1000th Thang Long – Hanoi anniversary. They say paintings should depict historical developments of Thang Long – Hanoi or be portraits of Hanoi’s heroes to help people and visitors understand about Hanoi’s culture and history.
They also say that the logos of sponsors for this project are too big and appear too frequently, making people think that the paintings are advertisements, not artworks.
Nguyen Thu Thuy, the author of the Ceramic Road project, said she wanted to describe historical battles like the ones in Ham Tu Quan, Van Kiep or the Nhu Nguyet River on these paintings, but the dike walls are not wide enough.
She said the investor of this project, the Tan Art Co., Ltd. will combine with the Hanoi authorities to work out rules for logos of sponsors. They may build a wall to honour sponsors.
“The Hanoi People’s Committee allocated 17 billion dong, around one-fourth of the total capital for this project. The remaining capital comes from local and foreign organisations and they must be honoured for their contributions to Hanoi,” Thuy said.
According to Thuy, many Vietnamese artists didn’t support this project but many other, especially foreign artists, warmly backed this programme, saying that this would be a lively outdoor museum for the public.