A small sculpture show in Yokohama just picked up a very high-profile visitor. 'Dialogues', a Việt Nam-Japan small-scale sculpture exhibition in Kanagawa prefecture, was toured on Tuesday afternoon by Vietnam's General Secretary and President Tô Lâm and his spouse, part of an official visit to Japan.
The show brings together more than 30 works by contemporary artists from both countries. The line-up mixes established sculptors with strong personal styles and young artists born in the 1990s, so the range of approaches is deliberately wide. Materials play a big role too: heavy stone, reflective metal, rustic wood, hand-built ceramics, plus traditional lacquered wood and hybrids that combine several materials in one piece. Thematically, the works circle around people, nature and everyday life.
The exhibition was put together by the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum and the Vietnamese Embassy in Japan working with Kanagawa authorities, and it is staged at the Kanagawa Prefectural Government's Office in Yokohama. During the visit, directors of the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum and the Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Modern Art walked the Vietnamese leader through standout pieces, and he and his spouse also spoke with Vietnamese and Japanese sculptors about the ideas behind their work.
For anyone in Yokohama, the practical bit is straightforward: entry is free and the show runs from November 8 to 11. That's a short window, so if the dates are still live, it's worth factoring into a day in the city.
Why should a traveller care? Because it's a rare, free chance to see Vietnamese contemporary sculpture in Japan, and it signals how active the cultural channel between the two countries has become. If you're visiting Yokohama in early November, the exhibition doubles as a taste of Vietnamese art you'd otherwise need to travel to Hà Nội to find — the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum holds the national collection. And Yokohama itself rewards the detour: it's under half an hour from central Tokyo by train, with a harbourfront, Chinatown and a stack of museums within walking distance of the prefectural government building where 'Dialogues' is hosted.
