Artists Turn Hong Kong’s Airport Into a Protest Art Studio as Anti-Government Demonstrations Escalate

Artists joined demonstrators
occupying the Hong Kong International Airport over the weekend to
create protest art in its arrival hall, transforming the airport
into a makeshift art studio. Since the sit-in began on
Friday, hundreds of protesters have swelled to thousands, causing
the airport, which is one of the world’s busiest, to cancel all
flights departing today, August 12.

Since the protests began on June
9, artists have been
wondering about their role, and many have taken up the job of 
disseminating information to the wider public. At the airport,
artists-turned-activists have been creating paintings,
illustrations, and graphics to publicize the reasons for their
protest. Travelers were greeted by protesters chanting “Free Hong
Kong!” and were handed educational materials about the reason for
the territory’s continuing civil unrest, which is entering its
tenth week.

Protesters have also been translating leaflets into different
languages, including English, Chinese, Korean, and
Japanese. In keeping with the democratic nature of the
protests, anyone can contribute their protest art to the cause, and
all are encouraged to share it on social media,
including Instagram, Telegram, Airdrop, and LIHKG.

Protest art at the airport
ranged from posters and stickers to pamphlets and informational
videos documenting the increasingly violent response to street
demonstrations by the Hong Kong police officers, who have used
teargas and “non-lethal” ammunition to disperse gatherings. Earlier
today, some people began leaving the airport terminal as rumors
circulated that the police intend to move on protesters, the
BBC
reports.

Ai Weiwei is the most
high-profile Chinese artist supporting the demonstrators. While he
is based in Europe, he was quick to send members of his studio to
Hong Kong to document the protests. Ai’s researchers have been
recording dramatic footage, which he says he will use to produce
either an artwork or a documentary. In the meantime, he has been
posting videos, including protesters being teargassed from the roof
of a high-rise building, on his Instagram. 

“We are really on the front
line; we are fighting for human rights, for freedom of speech, and
we are fighting for all the values we care about [alongside] those
people who also care about those same values,” Ai told
the BBC in a radio
interview on Friday. He
expressed concern about the escalating response to the protests and
fears that the Chinese military will soon intervene, risking a
repeat of the 1989 massacre at Tiananmen Square.

Although some of the protesters
have focused on campaigning for foreign governments to intervene,
the artist says he doesn’t expect the West to challenge China. He
said that countries, including Britain, want to preserve “business
as usual” with the world’s second largest economy.

While tension between the US and
China is growing, US President Donald Trump recently echoed the
rhetoric of the Chinese government by calling the protests
“riots” and saying that the issue was between Hong Kong and
China. Trump added: “They’ll have to deal with that themselves.
They don’t need advice.” As for the UK, Ai said the Chinese government
is “laughing” at the country’s inability to deal with Brexit
negotiations. “It cannot even deal with its own issues that it is
facing, I don’t think Britain will take any responsibility,” Ai
said.

This weekend’s airport sit-in
follows an earlier one on July 26, during which flight attendants
and airport workers joined in. The anti-government protests kicked
off on June 9, when more than one million people marched against a
proposed bill that would allow people to be extradited to China to
face trial. The bill has since been shelved, but not withdrawn, by
the territory’s embattled chief executive. The protests have
escalated to include wider concerns at China’s reduction of civil
liberties in the semi-autonomous region, which has been run under
the “one country, two systems” policy ever since it ceased being a
British colony in 1997.

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Studio as Anti-Government Demonstrations Escalate appeared
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