YAN Wai Yin &

Muted Bridges | 日 ''''''';''''''' 記 (TUGGING DIARY)

In Muted Bridges, YAN Wai Yin documents six bridges in the Hong Kong district of Causeway Bay, which, all of them freshly painted, radiate out from the grey urban space, in silent 16 mm film recordings. The district was the centre of the protests against the increasingly restrictive influence of China on the public life of the Special Administrative Region in the years 2019/20. The bridges at that time became symbolic and de facto bearers of meaning – covered over and over with graffiti, posters, codes and tags of the protesters. Following the protests, the government hurriedly painted over these messages of resistance and solidarity in an effort to not disturb the celebrations of National Day. While the earlier work 日 ''''''';''''''' 記 (TUGGING DIARY), part of VIDEONALE.19, 2023, lends expression to the violent atmosphere of the protests in poignant images, words and sound compositions, Muted Bridges remains silent, and is nonetheless no less present. It was already clear to the artist during the making of 日 ''''''';''''''' 記 (TUGGING DIARY) that this second work had to be made. It was also just as clear that it would be silent, as silent and muted as the city and its people increasingly became and still remain due to censorship and the related mistrust. In their immaculately brilliant new presence captured on film, the bridges are memorials to this advancing wave of enforced silence and at the same time an expression of resistance. For YAN Wai Yin, Muted Bridges is also an answer to the question: what can we do as individuals, as a collective with our art, our activism, to counter the gravity of this situation in some way, to tell this story without simply documenting it, to tell of the censorship without placing others in danger? (Tasja Langenbach)

In addition to Muted Bridges, we are also showing the artist's work 日 ''''''';''''''' 記 (TUGGING DIARY), 2021, 16:00 min (shown at VIDEONALE.19). The two works will be presented together for the first time in the context of the VIDEONALE.20 exhibition.

Images: YAN Wai Yin, muted bridges, 2023 © YAN Wai Yin

About the artist

YAN Wai Yin *1994 in Hong Kong, HKG, lives and works in Hong Kong, HKG
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About the Work

Length 00:04:00

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