From 2004 to 2025, Saigon Open City has grown alongside the rapid transformation of Ho Chi Minh City — during a period when concepts such as contemporary art, creative spaces, and cultural economy were still emerging in Vietnam.
These two decades were defined by experimentation, commitment, and the courage to pioneer.
From Saigon Biennale 2006, one of the earliest efforts to connect international contemporary art with the local context of Saigon; to 3A Station Art Complex (2012), where art, design, and community coexisted within an open urban space; from Saigon Art Map (2016), an online platform documenting the city’s art ecosystem; to long-term research and conceptual projects such as Saigon Lotus Field and Saigon Ceramic Heritage Revival —
Saigon Open City has never pursued volume. We chose instead to move deliberately, to work in depth, and to engage with territories where precedents did not yet exist.
The year 2025 marks not an ending, but the completion of an exploratory cycle — long enough to understand how this city functions, deep enough to recognize what truly endures, and reflective enough to identify what must be preserved for the future.
From 2026 onward, Saigon Open City enters a new phase.
A phase focused on:
– urban heritage preservation through contemporary perspectives,
– adaptive reuse of historic architecture,
– cultural policy dialogue,
– and collaborative engagement with public institutions, private partners, and academic bodies
in shaping the city’s cultural infrastructure.
We believe that development does not require the erasure of memory. A global city needs a future — but it also needs historical depth to remain grounded.
2026 opens as a new chapter. Not louder. But clearer. More responsible. And more deeply connected to the cultural destiny of Ho Chi Minh City.
Saigon Open City
Culture • Art • Urban Heritage