HÀ NỘI — A strange iron pipe standing on a Hà Nội street is drawing curious visitors to stop, turn a crank and listen. But this is no ordinary public artwork. The Poesiomat, a talking sculpture from the Czech Republic that plays poetry, music and local sounds, has arrived in the capital, making Hà Nội the first city in Southeast Asia to host the distinctive project.

Shaped like a periscope, the Poesiomat is a sound installation designed to connect poetry and storytelling with a specific location. By turning a hand crank, visitors generate electricity themselves before selecting from around 20 audio recordings linked to the surrounding area, including poems, songs and ambient sounds.

Originally launched in the Czech Republic, the project has spread across dozens of locations there and is now gradually expanding internationally.

According to Jaroslav Zukerstein, acting chargé d’Affaires at the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Hà Nội, the Vietnamese capital was a natural choice for the project’s Southeast Asian debut because many Vietnamese people are already familiar with Czech culture.

He said there was no place more suitable than Hà Nội to help build a cultural bridge between the two countries. The embassy representative also stressed that culture should reach people in everyday public spaces rather than exist only inside museums or opera houses.

The sound installation at Complex 01 features 20 individually selected audio recordings that reflect the space’s spirit of creativity, multiculturalism and strong sense of community.

Among them is the Czech folk song Holka modrooká (Blue-Eyed Girl), performed in Czech by the Complex 01 team themselves as an improvised cultural dialogue between Prague and Hà Nội.

Trần Đắc Phúc, director of Complex 01, said the greatest value of Poesiomat, an audio device developed by Czech artists about 10 years ago, lies in its ability to preserve sounds, memories and snapshots of everyday life recorded by artists and creative practitioners.

He said the spirit of Poesiomat was particularly well suited to Complex 01, a space revitalised from a former factory.

Located in a former industrial complex transformed into a creative hub, Complex 01 has become a familiar gathering place for the arts, design and young creative communities.

The arrival of Poesiomat not only brings a new public art experience to Hà Nội, but also opens a fresh cultural connection between Việt Nam and the Czech Republic.

Amid the noise and movement of the capital, Poesiomat invites people to pause for a moment and listen to Hà Nội tell its stories in a completely different way. — VNS