Gallery that is a precious gift
FRENCH photographer Rehahn Croquevielle dazzled visitors with his latest private art gallery in Vietnam, which opened in the central province of Quang Nam’s ancient town of Hoi An in early January.
The 250sq m mini museum, displaying over 30 traditional minority ethnic customs, items and 200 pictures with stories written in three languages – French, English and Vietnamese – is the result of five years of exploration of Vietnam and a large number of previous exhibitions.
The non-profit museum, Di San Vo Gia (Precious Heritage), is aimed at showing the beautiful diversity of Vietnam and at the same time, expressing Croquevielle’s concerns over vanishing traditional customs, especially among minority ethnic groups.
Alongside the costumes and cultural items at the exhibition are records of the journeys that Croquevielle made to visit each of the minority ethnic groups – reconstructed via large portraits of the people who belong to the groups.
The 38-year-old also collected information about the domicile, population, and cultural highlights of each group, to which he added his own experience of each journey.
“In July 2016, I was privileged to meet the smallest ethnic group in Vietnam, the O’Du. There are only about 376 people currently in this group. They can be found in central Nghe An Province. There’s virtually no information about this group available online, so it took me two days to find them. I was however lucky enough to meet the chief who was initially reluctant to part with a costume,” reveals Croquevielle.
“But when I told him about representing this group in my collection, he helped me obtain one. I was surprised to discover that the O’Du only have five complete original costumes left.”
He also met Vi Thi Dung, a 78-year-old woman who turned out to be the last person making traditional skirts in the village.
“In order to obtain a full costume today, the O’Du has to cross the border into Laos, something they rarely do.
“I also discovered that there are only 10 people left in the village who can speak the original language called Phrom. All 10 of them are over 70 years old.
“However, not one is able to read or write the original language so there are no books referencing it, making it impossible to even learn anymore,” he recalls.
Croquevielle, who was listed among the top 10 best travel photographers by the website boredpanda.com, bought a private building for his display so as not to rely on rented property. “No one can tell what will happen in the next 10 or 20 years; I want these cultural records on the customs of the minorities to be preserved in Hoi An, and wish to present this collection to Vietnam,” he says.