Manifestations: Documenting the Art of the Political in the Umbrella Movement

Long supposed as apolitical, anachronistic and opportunistic, the events of the autumn of 2014 showed the what a multi-faceted political movement looks like in Hong Kong. The Movement witnessed an explosion of artistic and rhetorical creativity by the protesters. This paper examines the co-articulation of the political expressed in the protesters’ original art and as seen through my lens as a documentary filmmaker. Over 80 hours of footage was shot for use in the transmedia installation Watch This Space as well as for a feature-length documentary in progress. The critical framework draws from and is informed by a range of concepts from Deleuze, Bergson, DeBord to Ranciere. Popular interpretations of what Ranciere meant by “politics” frequently restrict it to images of state law enforcement and activists. The political however, plays on a multiplicity of levels, especially, on the level of language itself (visual, musical, etc.). The neighborhoods of Mong Kok, Tsim Sha Tsui and Causeway Bay had Umbrella Movement bodies actively inhabit them as much for their centers of commerce as for their specific symbolism. The video clips in the installation reflect this as one of the tablet devices is loaded with shots of protesters juxtaposed against oversized billboards, framed against electric shop signs and appropriating the once-unforgiving tarmac as a concrete canvas to draw an oversized mandala. In another, an unknown artist exemplifies DeBord and Wolman’s concept of deceptive detournement by drawing the image of the red flag of the People’s Republic of China but replaced the yellow stars with the Chinese characters for “Theft”, “Rape”, “Corruption” and “Steal.” As reflective of the de-centralized nature of the political activism by the protesters, the research conducted in the filmed interviews does not feature the leaders nor one single group or artist.