» Window #1 (President Hotel)

This artwork forms part of Laurent Weyl’s photography project and book President Hotel. An imposing structure built for the US army in the 1970s, the President Hotel was for many years the biggest and most modern building in Saigon. After the US army withdrew, up to 2,500 Vietnamese people went to live in it. An important witness to the history of Vietnam over the last half century, time is embedded layer upon layer within this building – a decaying architectural skeleton that was destroyed in 2016 to leave room for modern towers and shopping malls.   

Laurent Weyl’s photos capture the essence of the President Hotel, casting a poetic eye on the last tenants who occupied it and the history reflected in the building. Its broken windows held inspiring memories and its torn walls wore signs of time, and yet, in the hallways, shadows seemed to continue to play games, re-animating a past long gone.