Saigon Urban Street Fest brings street art to city downtown

FUNKY LOVE – The Funky Monkeys, a circus and urban dance company from Germany, offers a performance of contemporary circus and dance at the Saigon Urban Street Fest taking place in front of the Central Post Office on December 8, 9 and 10. Photo courtesy of artLive

HCM CITY — German and Vietnamese artists are dazzling residents and tourists in HCM City with dozens of performances at the Saigon Urban Street Fest taking place in front of the Post Office until December 10.

The festival is organised by artLIVE, a multimedia platform specialising in art, architecture, cuisine, and audiovisual, with its partners, the city Tourism Promotion Centre and the Goethe Institute in HCM City.

The Funky Monkeys, a circus and urban dance company from Germany, in collaboration with Vietnamese artists Quách Thế Nam, Sơn Lương, Balienzz and Nguyễn Đức Vinh Quang, perform contemporary circus, comedy and street dance at the event.

Funky Monkeys was founded in 2015 by Toàn Lê, Ferenc Heinrich and Milu Chuh to bring artists from a wide range of fields together to explore a combination of contemporary circus and modern dance. The troupe has won top prizes at international circus festivals including the Silver prize at the International Circus Festival of Monte Carlo.

Felix Minh Ân Nguyễn, born and raised in Germany, offers a dance performance called “Straight Blade – Cosmos of Dhyana – Core of a Nature.”

Felix has visited Việt Nam many times, developing a strong connection with his origins and homeland. Combined with the movements of martial arts inspired by Bruce Lee, and movements by Michael Jackson, he felt himself not merely a dancer but a movement artist.

The festival also has performances by local band Whee! and singers Giana and DUYBI.

Meanwhile, young artist Thảo Xeko provides a live performance by creating three graffiti paintings during the event.

The paintings feature topics of Saigon Faithful about the city’s signature architectural sites, Saigon Fresh about street food, and Saigon Fun about street art and games.

The organiser also collaborates with the Tourism Promotion Centre to create the biggest doodle painting in Việt Nam at the festival.

The painting aims to introduce visitors the culture, landscape and life of the city’s 22 districts and Thủ Đức city.

The festival is open to the public for free from 8am to 9pm and expected to attract 25,000-30,000 visitors. — VNS