Fang Yu: Mountain Fire Gen Z

Phuong Vu was one of the youngest attendees at the 2024 Vietnamese Influential People Forum, which took place in France at the end of March.

Appearing with bright blue dyed hair and cool, hip-hop-style piercings in his ears and nose, visual artist Phuong Vu (full name: Vu Thien Phuong) led guests into Nirvana Streetwear, where he co-founded Antiantiart studio.

In the creatively decorated space, Phuong's brothers were still half-asleep after an exhausting night of meeting deadlines.

Phuong Vu and Antiantiart became two trending keywords online when Apple CEO Tim Cook visited Vietnam in mid-April.

In late March, Phuong Vu, the "eldest" of the group, was one of the youngest participants in the Vietnam Global Leaders Forum 2024 (VGLF 2024) held in Paris, France.

At that forum, listening to the discussions of the older members, Phuong realized how insignificant she felt. Each person came from a different field, but ultimately, they were all telling "the story of Vietnam." What was that story like in the realm of creativity?

After a moment of reflection, Phuong shared all his experiences from the past 10 years, from when he was a delivery guy for a fashion store to being drawn to the vast yet stimulating world of images.

Phuong Vu believes that Vietnam currently has a generation of young, dynamic, and intelligent creative professionals who are always up-to-date with global trends, but they still need a support system and foundation to develop further.

Japan has anime, samurai, traditional paintings; South Korea later built a K-pop culture… these are such beautiful foundations for stepping out into the world. Vietnam has a lot of cultural upheaval, with many cultures within one. Our identity is “very chaotic,” and we lack a specific, clear foundation for contemporary art to flourish and take flight.

PHUONG VU

At one time, the West, Korea, and Japan were the destinations.

"In previous generations of creative professionals, stories about Vietnam weren't often mentioned. Vietnamese people tend to have a preference for foreign things, and for a time, those in this field viewed the West, South Korea, or Japan as their destination," Phuong said.

Now, that has changed somewhat with the shift in aesthetic trends from Western to East Asian culture. Many young people have started incorporating Vietnamese elements, but the influence is not very significant.

This 9x generation cites Trinh Cong Son's music or the paintings of artists from the Indochina generation as two examples of genuine influence. Currently, the Vietnamese essence expressed in the products of the contemporary generation is quite weak.

Phuong Vu said that Antiantiart often receives requests from clients (both international and domestic) who want it to resemble Korea, Japan, or the West… When he hears this, he feels very irritated because it's a cultural bias. Why is that?

Although Phương admits she's not a big fan of traditional culture, as someone who works with images, she finds Vietnam to be quite beautiful.

He dislikes any comparisons that tend to elevate one thing while simultaneously belittling another. For Phuong, everything has its own merits and interesting aspects. He wants to view them fairly, like all other materials in the world.

That's why artists often incorporate many Vietnamese elements into their products, thereby wanting to make one thing clear: Everything can be made beautiful if you know how to do it right.

From her own perspective, Phuong Vu explains that the country has gone through continuous wars, and its culture has not been given sufficient attention or solid foundation. While the economy has developed and Vietnamese people learn very quickly, they lack a solid foundation; what young people absorb (in contemporary culture) is vastly different from traditional culture.

Visual artist Phuong Vu - Photo: Provided by the artist

Generation Z currently has the opportunity to study abroad, possessing a very "Western" and modern mindset, but they haven't truly experienced Vietnamese culture firsthand.

Many people in Vietnam who understand and appreciate Vietnamese culture still lack the necessary knowledge and foundation to create products that are well-received and can reach a wider global audience.

Therefore, although we have many design elements that can be developed, for the reasons mentioned above, it is difficult for many people working in this field.

According to Phuong Vu, Vietnam is like a vast plot of land with no foundation yet. A solid foundation is still needed to move on to levels 5, 6… in the development of creative and cultural industries.

And along that path, there are many difficulties but also many advantages. Among them is the fact that Vietnam possesses a young, very young, energetic, intelligent workforce that is eager to keep up with trends.

However, in order to harmoniously combine traditional and contemporary cultural elements, we need to identify what the true Vietnamese essence is.

Currently, some people are using this material quite indiscriminately. Phuong Vu recounts the general scene in Sapa and wonders how that land has been, and is being, "destroyed."

"Vietnam tends to develop its culture and tourism in a way that maximizes and exploits resources to the fullest, but not in the right way. We are preoccupied with 'taking what's readily available,' 'digging' on an unclear foundation," he said.

Behind the scenes of the Spring Flower Song video.

An impossible dream and a huge reward.

Phuong Vu doesn't call the work he's doing creative. Instead, he considers it "a way to make a living," "nothing extraordinary."

The path he had traveled taught the leader of Antiantiart both the romanticism and the necessary sobriety to reach for the "impossible".

Born into a not-so-well-off family, Phuong Vu said he wasn't a good son (he was so obsessed with hip hop that, despite his parents' objections, he dropped out of school to follow the older guys in a dance group on the street).

Later, he had to work many jobs to make a living, from being a delivery driver for a familiar fashion store, to selling mobile phones, then selling secondhand clothes, and finally opening a clothing store. Because he didn't have money to hire models, he had to take the photos himself...

"Back then, the world of images, fashion… was so beautiful, but no matter how much I imagined it, I never thought I would one day do this job because it seemed so far-fetched," Phuong leaned back in her chair and reminisced about her early days.

And so, over time, I gradually progressed step by step, learning and experimenting along the way, gaining experience through trial and error. I did whatever work I could to support myself.

Lacking formal education, Phuong made an effort to read more books, watch and listen more, accumulating knowledge from various sources as her personal resource.

In the creative industry, copying isn't inherently bad. However, if you copy content without your own perspective, without incorporating your own ideas, then it's bad.

Phuong Vu

In 2018, Antiantiart studio was founded, bringing together like-minded individuals with shared interests. Phuong often tells his colleagues that they must strive to create Vietnamese products that are in line with global trends.

Starting with small projects, in just a few short years, Antiantiart quickly became a formidable name in the creative community.

Alongside advertising projects, Antiantiart also takes on smaller projects with high artistic value. Phuong Vu says they strive for sustainability and aim to expand beyond borders, so that one day they won't be preoccupied with making money and making a living, but can do something bigger.

What does Phuong remember most at this moment? Phuong talked about the early days' earnings, from a few million dong - which the team had to divide among themselves down to the smallest amount - to huge sums of tens of millions of dong - she was so happy and overjoyed that she went to brag to her family and relatives.

I remember the old iPhone we used to whisper our first dreams to each other. I also remember the old camera that came with the message, "With you, it's more valuable," as if someone was giving me a dream… All of these have become significant moments.

Therefore, when talking about himself, Phuong Vu is quite honest about what he thinks or feels, and also very practical in not indulging his emotions too much in order to accomplish more of the things he has set out to do.

According to this young man, a person's individuality is cultivated over time, and the more he sees his own individuality, the more he explores his own potential…

Apple CEO Tim Cook (far left) visits Antiantiart's headquarters.

I don't like the idea of ​​"minimalism" being reduced to a single word or phrase. I think there are more words to express myself.

PHUONG VU

Still teenagers dancing hip hop on the streets of Hanoi.

In 8th and 9th grade, Phuong Vu began exploring hip hop culture through street dances in Hanoi. Back then, the hip hop community wasn't as strong as it is now, and enthusiastic teenagers had to wander around looking for places to dance.

As a result, a new, diverse cultural space has blossomed among the 90s generation, with ways of storytelling, expressing themselves, and connecting with the world that differ from conventional expressions.

Hip hop gave Phuong Vu everything: brothers and friends, a fun job, and a lot of knowledge to pursue his career. Thanks to hip hop, his ideas about imagery have become more open and expansive.

He likes the feeling of images being created from thoughts, and then being able to see, touch, photograph, or film them.

MV Raising a Cup to Dispel Sorrow

When you go to Thailand, Korea, Japan, etc., you find everything too flat, too uniform, or too clean and tidy, which can be boring. It is precisely the chaotic, disjointed state of Vietnam that can create images that even the creators couldn't have foreseen.

The best and most liberating aspect is that beauty comes from the artist's ability to capture each moment, choose each material, and time the process unfolds.

Phuong loves that feeling of "life" and "soul" in Vietnam and wants to bring that atmosphere into Antiantiart's products.

Antiantiart is based in Hanoi, but Phuong Vu flies to Ho Chi Minh City as often as he goes to the market. Even so, he didn't move south immediately like many others.

Phuong remains in Hanoi, experiencing its two extreme opposites: extreme heat and extreme cold, extreme nostalgia and extreme modernity… Because it’s wonderful here, it’s very stimulating for creativity.

Walking steadily but not slowly, the path Phuong Vu takes is the answer to the true destiny of a genuine Mountain Fire elemental. Looking at the products behind this young man, one sees a dream emerging, vast and gradually illuminating.

Like flowers blooming from the darkness, from within the rocks; like square-shaped banh chung and round banh day cakes high above; like the vibrant sounds of traditional musical instruments blending together in a contemporary artistic atmosphere… in the video "Spring Flower Song ," Phuong Vu reveals a warm narrative like a fire on the mountain.

He will continue his journey through Vietnamese culture, in a world of images that he considers beautiful, full of secrets to explore and interpret.

Antiantiart is the headquarters of a dozen or so Gen Z youths, all very young and full of passions.

Together with Phuong Vu, they have released a series of highly artistic and viral products online, such as " The Dragon and the Immortal " (a collaboration with Apple), a flight safety instruction video for Vietnam Airlines, the "Spring Flower Song" video (a collaboration with VTV), "Hanoi, a Piece of My Own ," " Capital City Cypher ," etc.

Additionally, there are music videos by many V-pop artists such as "Cooking for You" by Den Vau, "Hit Me Up" by Binz (aka Xuan Dan), "Call Me" by Wren Evans, and "Raising a Cup to Dispel Sorrow" by Bich Phuong.

Recently, rapper Low G released the music video for "pho real," a collaboration between Anh Phan and Canadian rapper bbno$.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/phuong-vu-son-dau-hoa-gen-z-2024042518072655.htm