The Belfast Photo Festival is showcasing a powerful documentary project titled How Was Your Dream? by Franco-Swiss photographer Thadde Comar, capturing the 2019 extradition bill protests in Hong Kong. The exhibition runs until 30 June at various venues across the city.
Background of the Protests
Between June and October 2019, millions of Hong Kong residents took to the streets to oppose a proposed extradition bill that would allow authorities to transfer individuals to mainland China's Communist Party-controlled courts. The protests, initially weekly, escalated in frequency and threatened to paralyze the city. Police arrested over 10,000 people in connection with the movement, with nearly 3,000 prosecuted by August 2022, according to government statistics.
Photographer's Perspective
Comar's work aims to provide a strictly visual testimony that stands apart from conventional journalistic coverage, offering a new artistic perspective. The title How Was Your Dream? references a discreet phrase used by demonstrators to discuss their protest experiences without drawing attention.
The project addresses new forms of demonstration and insurrection in an era dominated by sophisticated control systems. Protesters faced an arsenal including facial recognition, geolocation, carding, eavesdropping, infiltration, water cannons, teargas, helicopters, sonic weapons, and non-lethal rifles. In response, they developed techniques based on invisibility and anonymity, such as using laser lights to disrupt police activities.
Themes of Erasure
Comar questions whether these strategies, while transforming forms of struggle, also contribute to the gradual erasure of individual singularities. The exhibition prompts viewers to consider: in the future, will societies and advanced control systems force us to make our human singularities disappear?
Five years prior, the 2014 Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong was quickly repressed by state and police violence. After the 2019 protests and the heavy-handed police response, open displays of dissent in Hong Kong became extremely rare. At one point, police arrested a student union member carrying a bag of laser pointers, claiming they were dangerous offensive weapons.
Artistic Approach
Comar's project is an attempt to provide a strictly visual testimony in an artistic manner, standing out from journalistic representations and offering a new perspective. The exhibition is part of the Belfast Photo Festival, which runs until 30 June.
