Exhibition: Hawkers and the Shouting on the Streets of Hanoi

The French Institute of Vietnam in Da Nang, the French Institute for Oriental Studies (EFEO), and the Danang Museum of Fine Arts are pleased to present the exhibition “Hawkers and the Shouting on the Streets of Hanoi.”

• Exhibition opening: 5pm on August 19, 2022
• Dates of event: August 19 – September 11, 2022
• Place: 1st floor, the Danang Museum of Fine Arts
• Address: 78 Le Duan, Da Nang
• Free entrance

The exhibition introduces a collection of sketches, paintings, and watercolors between 1925 and 1929 made by fifteen students of the Indochina Fine Arts School and their teacher, Ferdinand de Fénis. The artists skillfully depict the small world of hawkers walking through the streets of the capital under the first rays of sunlight of the day with a variety of fruit and vegetable stalls, confectionery, and snacks.

The uniqueness of the drawings is in the attractive depiction of the dishes sold on street corners and the capture of the musicality in the sales barks used to invite customers.

Sometimes, with only a few outlines, the deep humanity of the paintings is also exuded through the vibrancy of the street scenes, the elegant swaying motion to keep the good, or the inclined posture of the hawker taking ice cream for two impatiently waiting children. 

Photographic works from the same period in the collection of the French Institute for Oriental Studies are also honored through a completely interactive installation of 27 black and white photographs.

These hawkers mainly came from the villages surrounding Hanoi, which have now merged into the capital. The villages were formerly agricultural areas that contributed to providing food for more than 100,000 people in the inner city from 1925 to 1929. Besides street vendors, there were also people who specialized in buying and exchanging all kinds of used or waste items.

Nowadays, the mode of transportation and the items sold by hawkers have changed. Bicycles gradually replace the method of walking and selling goods with traditional carry tools. Advertising technology has also been modernized and adapted to the bustling urban environment. Furthermore, many hawkers now use loudspeakers connected to small battery-powered recorders, all fixed to the frames of their bicycles, to play pre-recorded calls.

Scenes of the daily life of Hanoians emerge through installations, light boxes, or displayed paintings. A delicate combination of photographs, sound effects, and graceful sketches brings the scent of nostalgia.