What’s interesting about this is that this same information is readily available on social media. ![]() There, on the walls, you find protestors posting information about upcoming protests-the day, the time, the location-as well as people attempting to stifle the protests by blotting out that information with black paint. How does one capture the double-sidedness of social media as it plays out on the ground in Hong Kong amidst the unfolding of intense pro-democracy protests? That was the question I asked myself as I explored the streets of the city, finding an answer inside the pedestrian tunnels that snake beneath the ground. In the other, it’s a platform for coordinating solidarity across national boundaries. ![]() In the first case, social media is a battlefield where you can attack your opponents anonymously. Whether it’s divisions in civil society over certain topics or unity between Taiwanese and Hong Kong youth, it goes without saying that what happened was galvanized by social media. Taiwan and Hong Kong felt practically like neighbors. This was a month after the Taiwanese Presidential elections, the results of which emboldened Hong Kong’s young pro-democracy supporters. A few months later, this February, I went to Hong Kong for a group exhibition at Tai Kwun Contemporary. Though an ocean away, the ripples of the Hong Kong protests could be felt in Taipei, where I had a chance to talk with young Taiwanese supporters of Hong Kong’s democratic candidates. The Hong Kong local elections were going on at the time. Then, in November last year, I travelled to Taipei for a group exhibition held at MOCA Taipei. Since then, I have continued exploring the divide between civil society and certain taboo words and topics. Among the individuals hosted were Kim Eun-sung and Kim Seo-kyung, the artists of The Statue of a Girl of Peace, and Kawamura Takashi, Mayor of Nagoya city. In response, I and other artists created Sanatorium, an alternative space for lectures, roundtables, and dialogues. Last year, at the Aichi Triennale 2019 (August-October), we witnessed how virulently allergic Japan is to the topics of the “comfort women” and the “Emperor.” The uproar was so great, in fact, that part of the exhibition was closed to the public, reopened for only a week at the end of the festival’s duration.
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