For many people, Devalai is the backdrop to a Chulalongkorn University graduation photo. Some students know one of its two buildings by a more familiar name. They call the Maha Vajiravudh Building “Tuek Wat”, or “temple building”, a nickname likely inspired by its traditional Thai architecture.
For a few more days, visitors can step inside and see what former students remember about the place. Times within Devalai, a free exhibition organised by the university’s Faculty of Arts, runs until Sunday, 15 November. A projection mapping installation in the lobby has been extended to the final day, giving visitors a chance to see the building after dark before it closes for about two and a half years of restoration.
Built in the late 1950s, the Maha Vajiravudh Building combines traditional Thai architectural details with modern design. It stands next to the Maha Chulalongkorn Building, and the two are known collectively as Devalai. The Maha Vajiravudh Building has housed classrooms, the university’s Central Library and the Faculty of Arts Library.
The exhibition fills all three floors with more than 1,000 items, including photographs, rare books and personal belongings. More than 100 people contributed memories, spanning generations of Arts students from the faculty’s first graduating class to Class 94.
A copy of a degree certificate from that first class is on display alongside lecture notebooks from different decades. A photograph of boxes of face masks used by students recalls a more recent chapter in campus life, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The exhibition also revisits the university’s 1995 graduation ceremony, when Queen Sirikit, the Queen Mother, presented degrees on her own. King Bhumibol Adulyadej usually presided over the ceremony and handed out the certificates.
“The same place can mean different things to different people,” said Nakrob Moonmanas and Paspawisa Jewpattanagul of the curatorial team. “Some remember Devalai as a classroom. Others think of the days they spent reading in the library. Some can even recall exactly where the sunlight would fall inside the building at a particular time of day, while others remember the photographs they took on graduation day.”
Original plans and archival photographs in the lobby show how the buildings took shape. Upstairs, librarians’ accounts recall the years when students and researchers came here to read and work. There are also clips and images showing how Devalai has appeared on screen, as well as displays on its place in fiction.
On the third floor, visitors can leave a memory of their own. The curators say some of the details they are looking for may be remembered by only one person.
The exhibition is open daily from 1pm to 8pm until 15 November, with last admission at 7.30pm. Guided tours are scheduled for 14 and 15 November. More information is available at Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/arts.chulalongkorn .
