Celebrating the 40th anniversary year of diplomatic relations between Finland and Vietnam in 2013, the Embassy of Finland in Hanoi opened an exhibition of Finnish posters “100 years – 100 posters” at the National Library of Vietnam on Monday March 18.
In his opening remarks, Ambassador Kimmo Lähdevirta noted that the exhibition gives out an excellent picture of not only about the development of poster art and graphic design in Finland, but also about the development of the Finnish society and economy.
The exhibition consisting of 101 posters from the beginning of the 20th Century until today was created by Graphic Designer Pia Kaikonen. The works on display were selected by Mr Kari Savolainen, Curator of the Lahti Poster Museum, from the collections of the Museum. Exhibition poster was designed and production of the posters in Hanoi was organized by Graphic Designer Claude Jacquelin.
From the Vietnamese side, the guest of honour was Vice Minister Vuong Duy Bien from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. Other guests included the Director of the National Library Ms Phan Thi Kim Dzung, ambassadors from several countries, representatives of companies supporting the jubilee year, representatives of the Vietnam – Finland Friendship Association, as well as other people interested in Finnish poster art.
The event received wide publicity as it was covered by about ten TV and radio channels, and a dozen of newspapers of Vietnam, who also made several interviews with the designers and the Ambassador.
The exhibition was on display at the National Library in Hanoi until Sunday, March 24. At the end of April it will be on display in Hue and at the beginning of May in Da Nang. After that it will travel to Thai Nguyen and Cao Bang in June, to Hai Phong in October, Buon Ma Thuot and Da Lat in November and to Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho in early December. The final exhibition is planned to take place in December at the University of Industrial Art in Hanoi.
