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Alfredo Jaar, A Hundred Times Nguyen, 1994 (detail)

a hundred times nguyen

I travelled to Hong Kong in the Fall of 1991 to investigate the living conditions of Vietnamese asylum seekers incarcerated there and being threatened with repatriation.
I spent ten days visiting "refugees detentions centres" and interviewing refugees, officials of the Hong Kong Government and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
I also spent twenty hours aboard police boats as they attempted to intercept Vietnamese asylum seekers entering Hong Kong territorial waters.

During the course of one of my visits to the Pillar Point Refugee Centre, I was followed by a little girl. She would not speak to me but only followed. At one point, I asked for permission to photograph her. She agreed. I took five photographs of her, one after the other, at intervals of approximately five seconds.

I wrote down her name: Nguyen Thi Thuy. I could not get her age, or her story. I suspect she was born at Pillar Point, as do some thirty children a month. She continued to follow. Later, I offered her my hand and she accepted it. From that moment, she never let go of my hand. Until I left the camp.

Of the 1378 photographs I took in Hong Kong, the images of Nguyen are the ones that have remained in my memory. Forever.

This book is dedicated to Nguyen Thi Thuy.

Alfredo Jaar, New York, January 1994

'Cem vezes Nguyen' de Alfredo Jaar - PhotoEspaña2011 at Museu Colecção Berardo (Lisbon)