Exhibition “The Story of Hoa Loc Thi Communal House”

At the Hanoi Creative Design Festival 2026, the exhibitions of “Stories of Communal Houses in the Street” are the focus of the activity series “Craft Stories through the Street,” introducing the history of craft development from Village to Street in the old Thang Long – Ke Cho. The exhibition “The Story of Hoa Loc Thi Communal House” connects painting and material experiments with the memory of the dyeing craft preserved at the communal house.
Hoa Loc Thi is tied to the story of Dan Loan artisans who brought the dyeing craft to Thang Long, gathering to do business and trade silk fabrics on Hang Dao Street. Epigraphic documents at the communal house also mark the Dan Loan community, famous for dyeing, who built a place to worship deities and craft ancestors and to meet and discuss common affairs.
And at this communal house, the story of color continues through contemporary artistic expressions. In “Color of the Wind,” a 2026 work, Tran Thi Hoi (Hoi Tran – BoBi) combines silk painting with silk dyeing techniques. Nguyen Duc Phuong presents a 2 × 4 m dyed fabric, while Pham Ngoc Tram brings a work on dyed fabric measuring 1 × 1.5 m. Tran Yen The’s CNC-cut iron street sign work adds another material and form of visual expression to the display flow. The co-presence of materials opens perspectives on surface, color, and the way artists work with materials.
Through the ways materials are used, the public can learn about the dyeing craft in relation to artistic creation and urban life. Viewing the works right in a space tied to the dyeing artisans’ community evokes further associations with craft knowledge, the journey of establishing a livelihood, and transmitted memory. From there, the exhibition opens an approach to heritage through materials and contemporary expressions, connecting the story of the craft street with today’s viewers’ perceptions.