I was attracted to a building by two sculptures at the front. Two women, one holding a bunch of rice stalks and a hammer, the other a (broken) rifle. Run-of-the-mill sort of artwork of the pre-doi moi period, a bit out of place in Hanoi near the end of 2008, I thought.
Still looking at the sculptures, out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone walking through a door into the building. There was a huge heap of dirt just inside that door next to the stairs to the next floor.
Cautiously I went inside knowing that I was trespassing. The building was surely derelict, if not deserted. In Hanoi where land was at a premium? Green moss on a damp wall. Brown marks on another wall where white ants had eaten a wooden board. Dusty and dirty classrooms. Yet there was drawing of an anatomy lesson on a board and writing about pre-historic art on another...
