Book presentation Gianpaolo Arena,A Folktale from Vietnam published by The Velvet Cell with Gianpaolo Arena and Fabio Severo

A Folktale from Vietnam – Speeding Motorcycles and Roasted Lemongrass is the result of 8 years of research through a series of photographs taken in Vietnam in 2013, 2015 and 2018.
Both the photographs and the essays examine the complex link between landscape and civilization. In this branching sequence of urban sprawl, places and portraits we can encounter the co-presence of periods and cultures that sometimes collide, sometimes mix. This project captures fragments of rituals and different ways of living in contemporary Vietnamese society. Gianpaolo Arena’s gaze dwells on the present and the future of cities, between memory and decadence, culture and capitalism, folklore and propaganda.

The Vietnam of our imagination stems from the intersection between cinema, literature and photo- graphy. Over time this combination has built up a layer of established knowledge of the country, whi- ch it is hard to peel away in order to offer a different perspective. When we say Vietnam we think of the exotic, we think of Asia as an indistinct geographi- cal idea. Vietnam is the epitome of elsewhere. 
Fabio Severo, from Una geografia privata