How was your dream ? is a photographic project carried out during the Hong Kong protests between June and October 2019. This work deals with new forms of protest and insurrection in our post-contemporary era dominated by societies of unwavering control. Five years earlier, in Hong Kong, the “Umbrella Movement” was quickly repressed by state and police violence. In 2019, the democratic uprising that began in May has given itself the means to continue. Faced with a sophisticated arsenal of control (facial recognition, geolocation, profiling, wiretapping, infiltration, water cannons, tear gas, helicopters, sonic weapons, non-lethal rifles), the Hong Kong protesters have developed a repertoire of techniques based on principles of invisibility and untraceability (anonymity, blinding lasers, Faraday pockets, drone vision, masks of all kinds, encrypted communication, etc.), allowing them to mitigate the effects of repression. These new devices, which contribute to the transformation of forms of struggle and resistance, nevertheless push for the progressive erasure of individual singularities. In the future, will societies and sophisticated control systems force us to make our human singularities disappear? Will this be done for the benefit of a new common identity?
Thadde Comar is based in Paris and Lausanne where he juggles between commissioned photography, editorial and personal explorations. He is the winner of the sixth edition of the AOYF Human Rights Photography Award presented by the Act On Your Future Foundation in Geneva.
commissioner Florent Basiletti
partners Act On Your Future Foundation, Epson
L’Engagement
from July 1 to September 29, 2024
Fondation Manuel Rivera-Ortiz
18 rue de la Calade
13200 Arles
www.mrofoundation.org
