Sai Gon Open City _ Design’s mistakes:

Sai Gon Open City has been opened and managed by a group of artists and designers and it is true that Sai Gon Open City has some weak points that I prefer to call mistakes of design. Among mistakes such as licensing, organization, fund, technical and artist, I personally think that the lack of communication is the biggest mistake. This came not only from Sai Gon Open City side but also from others and the lack of communication also caused other troubles. It is said that just with the word “IF”; you can put Paris in a bottle. However, let’s use it to solve this mistake.


From the point of view of Sai Gon Open City, they did not get any support from the authority of the city and that lead to problem about the licensing and the late in the exhibition. However, from the point of view of authority, because they did not understand the meaning or purpose of the project, they did not approve or support for Sai Gon Open City. They could not do something that they were not interesting in. If organizers of Sai Gon Open City had made a good communication and contact with authority in the city, there would have had trouble about the licensing.

The same mistake happened with artists before 1975. If both Sai Gon Open City and these artists spent more time together to talk or discuss about the project, there might not have had troubles. Moreover, the quality of the project will be better because these artists who take a part in art’s history of the city, can give young artists advises.

This is just a start for Sai Gon Open City. They can solve their mistake by finding a better way to communicate with others. It may take time and patient is the only thing that will make thing work in this time.