Vietnam Festival of Creativity & Design 2026: ‘Living Exhibition’ brings creativity to life

As part of the seventh edition of the Vietnam Festival of Creativity & Design (VFCD), the exhibition is a highlight of the week-long event organized by RMIT University Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City, with participation from individuals, organizations and businesses across the creative industries.

The exhibition reflects VFCD 2026’s 'Living Festival' theme through a different approach, creating space for the creative process to continue rather than simply displaying completed works. 

Throughout the exhibition, visitors can create, modify, activate, perform, experience or reinterpret parts of the works on display.

'Living Exhibition' puts creativity in motion 

The Living Exhibition marks the opening of VFCD 2026’s week-long program, which features nearly 40 activities across Ho Chi Minh City.

After six consecutive annual editions from 2019 to 2024, VFCD is returning this year as a biennial event. 

Its 'Living Festival' theme explores creativity as an ongoing process, shaped and reshaped through interactions between people, ideas, disciplines and places.

At the exhibition’s opening, Professor Donna Cleveland, Dean of the School of Communication & Design at RMIT University Vietnam, said the school remains committed to creating opportunities for people from different fields to work and exchange ideas.

“As we open VFCD 2026 today, I would like to reaffirm the School of Communication & Design's commitment to this journey,” Professor Donna said.

“We see ourselves as a convenor that brings together practitioners, students, researchers, businesses, cultural organisations, and communities. We hope to strengthen relationships across the creative ecosystem while linking Vietnam's creative community with regional and international networks,” she said.

A 'new take' on the exhibition

The Living Exhibition takes a less conventional approach to selecting and presenting creative works.

Instead of leaving the selection entirely to curators, the participating works were put through a double-blind peer-review process, with multiple international experts independently evaluating each submission.

The process brings different perspectives into the selection while giving the exhibition a broader basis for deciding which works to present.

The final selection is presented through four interconnected sub-tracks: Living Archives, Living Signals, Living Territories and Living Communities.

These are not meant to function as rigid categories. Instead, they provide different entry points for a range of creative practices to come together within the exhibition.

Associate Professor Lim Kok Yoong, Deputy Dean of the School of Communication & Design (Research and Innovation) at RMIT University Vietnam and head of the festival’s organizing committee, said VFCD brings together curation, research and experimentation in a way that sets it apart from other events.

“VFCD is neither solely an arts festival nor an institutional or commercial industry event. It occupies a distinctive space between education, research, culture, industry and public life,” Lim said.

“Its curatorial and peer-review processes allow VFCD to support experimentation and emerging practices while maintaining intellectual, academic rigors and creative freedom,” he said.

VFCD 2026 features five interconnected program strands, spanning exhibitions, forums, experimental spaces, thematic workshops, field research and programs co-organized with RMIT partners across the city.

Together, these activities bring creative practices into conversation with exploration and critical reflection, connect education with professional practice, link research with public participation, and create opportunities for local knowledge to engage with international exchange.