Christine Hemmet, specialist in the department of Asia in Musée de l'Homme, Paris, and Paul Jean-Ortiz, a chief counsellor of the French Embassy in 1995-1997, standing outside Salon Natasha at the opening of 'Looking In'.

The project 'Looking In' was originally projected as a series of exhibitions by international artist whose works were related to Vietnam in various ways; either they were foreign artist who visited or lived in Vietnam, or they studied and experimented with Vietnamese art techniques such as lacquer paintings. The project aimed to explore the Vietnamese influence to foreign artistic practice, and to introduce to the locals such genuine interest from foreign artists so as to invigorate cultural exchange and interactions.
The first exhibition of the project took place in Salon Natasha from 26 April to 7 May, 1997. The ten participating artists include Bradford Edwards (USA), Brian Ring (Canada), Christine Jean (France), Debra Porch (Australia), Eric Leroux (France), Gretchen So (Hong Kong), Julie Shiels (Australia), Maritta Nurmi (Finland), Matthew Johnson (Australia), and Veronika Radulovic (Germany). In addition there were ceramics presented at the exhibition by Christine Pearson (Australia), Eric Leroux (France), Maritta Nurmi (Finland), Paul Jean-Ortiz (France), Chantal Roman Vals (France), and Ulla Fornæus (Sweden).