Wir sind das Volk! (homage to all peaceful revolutionaries) (performance)

Thanks for the generous support from the Goethe-Institut Hongkong, I presented a live performance at HALLE 14, Leipzig as part of the exhibition “The Ends of Freedom” on 7/11/2019, on the occasion of the 30^th anniversary of the fall of Berlin Wall.

The 2019 protests in Hong Kong have shocked the world, as thousands of people have been persistently protesting for more than five months against the amended bills of extradition to mainland China. Protests then turned to focus on universal suffrage in Hong Kong, the Police’s abuse of power as well as the issues of misgovernment and structural violence.

Wen Yau discovered in the news a banner displaying “Wir sind das Volk!” from the 1989 protest in Germany before the Berlin Wall fell. This coincides with the recent leaderless protests in Hong Kong voicing: “We are the People!” The installation she conducted for the exhibition “The Ends of Freedom” (until December 7, 2019) gathers current posters, flyers and videos that Wen Yau has collected from artists, friends and other protesters in the protests in Hong Kong since June 2019. It is a picture of the resilient and versatile spirit of resistance, which documents Hong Kong protests. With reference to the Monday demonstrations in Leipzig in 1989, as well as other serial uprisings in different places around the world then, Wen Yau staged a performance in the exhibition space in Leipzig on 7 November 2019. The performance was a tribute to peaceful revolutionaries, but also an introspection about the dialectics of militancy and non-violence in revolutions with regards to the emotions and desires Wen Yau experienced in her participation in social movements.

>> Installation work at the Exhibition
>> Interview by Leipziger Volkszeitung: Kunst und kollective Kraft
>> My reflexive writing about this performance: The Unspoken Spell Cast on the Peaceful Revolutionaries

Thanks for the generous support from the Goethe-Institut Hongkong, I travelled to Leipzig and present this live performance at HALLE 14 on 7/11/2019, on the occasion of the 30^th anniversary of the fall of Berlin Wall.

This project is part of the exhibition “The Ends of Freedom” at HALLE 14, Leipzig, Germany, 7/9-7/12/2019