For the first time, a music show in Vietnam has chosen ceramics as the main character. No longer just a display material or stage backdrop, ceramics in GOm Show know how to resonate, how to tell stories and how to stir memories. A transition from "silence" to sound - from a sedimentary tradition to a contemporary experience.
Behind GOm Show is the Dan Do artist group, who are considered as “the ones who awaken the natives” through music. With the philosophy of “taking culture as the root, taking people as the energy”, the group has consistently pursued a distinct direction: creating art based on Vietnamese materials, using contemporary thinking and non-traditional tools. Artist Dinh Anh Tuan, the group’s founder, shared: “We do not recreate folk culture like a museum, but breathe new life into it. Pottery is not only an ancient object, it also has the potential of music, emotion and imagination”.
Pottery sings, music from sediments
Taking place on the nights of June 28 & 29, 2025 at the Hanoi Opera House, “GOm Show – Sounds from Pottery” is a unique art project created by the Dan Do artist group, artists who have been working tirelessly for more than a decade on an artistic journey based on indigenous materials. This time, they are not only “playing” music but are also telling a big story through sounds emitted from seemingly silent objects: jars, pots, gongs, earthen bells... An emotional art experience, for those who love sound, respect tradition and are curious about the magical storytelling ability of mother earth.
The Dan Do Group in the GOm Show performance space
Pottery is not only present as a musical instrument, but also the main character. It is a storyteller. It is an echo from the earth. Each beat that resonates is a layer of cultural memory that is awakened, not through explanation but through the method of evoking and guiding emotions. An important highlight of GOm Show is the system of musical instruments created entirely from terracotta, each one is a different sound entity. Jar Drum (low sound like a bass), Ceramic Gong, Ceramic Bell, Pot-shaped Guitar, Rotating Pottery... not only create physical echoes but also create spiritual vibrations, as if hearing the "breath" of Mother Earth.
Ceramic musical instruments – creations from traditional materials
Not simply music, GOm Show is considered a visual - auditory - tactile space, where layers of sound lead viewers through a journey: from "Return", "That Time", "Downstream" to "Find Hani", "Gom"... each program is a unique voice from indigenous ethnic communities such as M'nong, Tay, Lo Lo, Nung Din, E De, Ha Nhi... Combined with folk instruments, creative instruments and performance elements to bring an unprecedented musical experience: both realistic and dreamy.
When young people tell stories in native sounds
Not to perform as a cultural “specimen”, but to truly dialogue with a contemporary spirit, with an open stage, body movements, creative sounds and original emotions. The presence of many young artists from communities with unique cultural capital – has brought a new soul to the program. They bring not only rhythm or music theory, but also the spirit of their own community into the work: rawness, honesty, and richness of emotion.
A special feature that makes GOm Show this year full of vitality is the participation of many young artists from ethnic minority communities in the North.
A special feature that makes GOm Show this year full of vitality is the presence of many young artists from ethnic minority communities in the North such as M'nong, Tay, Lo Lo, Nung Din, Ha Nhi... They bring with them the rhythm, language, pitch and emotions very unique to their own community.
In the world of GOm, elements of performance, body movement, folk instruments and contemporary creation are not separated but blended together, creating an “open” stage for visual, auditory and emotional experiences. Viewers not only listen to music, but also see themselves somewhere in a memory, an ancient sound that has just been named.
Jars, pots and pans become musical instruments in the hands of artists
That Lute – Those who call the earth to speak
With a consistent philosophy for more than 12 years - "taking culture as the root, taking people as the energy", Dan Do has continuously experimented on Vietnamese materials. In the hands of artists, everyday objects suddenly become musical instruments, storytellers. They not only emit sounds, but also echo a declaration: tradition is not dead, we just need to know how to listen.
Unlike simulating or museumizing folk culture, Dan Do chooses to recreate from the root - breathing new thinking into old materials, opening up a space for intersection between tradition and contemporary. This is also a generational transition, when young artists continue not only skills but also the spirit of freedom and awareness in creation. At GOm Show, ceramics - a material that is silent and sedimentary - is awakened to speak. Not through common language, but through sound. Not to tell old stories, but to evoke the imagination of Vietnamese culture in a new form.
The Dan Do group of artists are not ceramic researchers, nor are they traditional musicians, but are creators with contemporary thinking, using indigenous knowledge as background material to tell the story of Vietnamese culture in the artistic language of the times.
The silent ceramic material and sediment are awakened to speak.
GOm Show is not only a milestone in the journey of Dan Do, but also opens up a different perspective on indigenous music, where tradition is not confined, but is breathed into new life, resonating with the language of the times. Two nights of performances at the Hanoi Opera House, June 28 and 29, 2025, are a rare opportunity to listen to a different kind of music - rustic, profound and very Vietnamese, not easily found in any other space.
