French cultural centre in Hà Nội to relocate

HÀ NỘI — The French Cultural Centre (L’Espace) will move its office from Tràng Tiền Street to Thiền Quang Street in Hà Nội on May 6. 

The relocation is a part of a strategy to further expand cultural activities to access more young people and develop new cultural programmes. 

L’Espace, a popular venue for French-Vietnamese cultural exchange, has been located at 24 Tràng Tiền Street for nearly 20 years. 

“The move will offer easier access to the centre for more people, particularly young people,” said French Ambassador to Việt Nam Nicolas Warnery at the press conference held in Hà Nội on April 8.

“In the near future, L’Espace in Hà Nội will not only hold events at its new location but also carry out its cultural exchange activities in many other cultural destinations in the city, such as historic places in Hà Nội Old Quarter,” said the ambassador.

In addition to promoting French culture and language, L’Espace will focus on enhancing experience sharing, increasing its capacity to organise major cultural events and bolstering friendship exchanges between Việt Nam and France, Warnery said.

Its programmes in Hà Nội will also act as a bridge between the two cultures as part of the effort to preserve and promote cultural values and create a distinctive identity and economic benefits, he added.

The new location of L’Espace will be a two-story French-style building at 15 Thiền Quang Street, Hai Bà Trưng District. It consists of a multimedia library, a resource centre dedicated to French language and culture lovers, and an event space.

L’Espace has spent billions of đồng on the old building’s preservation to keep its heritage, with help from the École Française d’Extrême-Orient (French School of the Far East), according to the Director of the French Institute in Việt Nam Sophie Maysonnave.

“The relocation aims to renovate L’Espace activities in the main directions, including approaching youth, boosting artist exchange and heritage preservation,” she said. 

A concert titled LiveSpace 4 on April 23 will be the last event of L’Espace at the old venue. — VnExpress News