For just over a minute yesterday evening, a series of nine-digit numbers lit up the International Commerce Centre, Hong Kong’s tallest building.
The glowing numbers looming over Victoria Harbour were actually counting down the seconds to 2047 – when the SAR agreement protecting Hong Kong’s autonomy expires.
The public art project, entitled “Countdown Machine”, was designed by local collective Add Oil Team as a way to provoke Hongkongers into contemplating the city’s future during senior Chinese official Zhang Dejiang’s controversial three-day visit.
“We hope to […] illustrate the biggest anxiety of the Hong Kong people,” Sampson Wong, who co-created the animation with Jason Lam, told the New York Times.
Wong explained that the subversive message was approved as part of a “mostly apolitical” nine-minute animation called “Our 60-Second Friendship Begins Now” by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council.
“Since the Umbrella Movement ended in 2014, the frustration towards a halted democracy in the city has been transformed into concerns about and anxiety towards the fate of Hong Kong in 2047. Citizens of Hong Kong, particularly the younger generation, have advocated that the future of the city should be determined by Hong Kong people,” the group wrote on Facebook.
“By visualising the countdown to 2047 […], we seek to further highlight the importance of the ‘2047 issue’ and hope that more debates and actions will emerge. We hope to draw the world’s attention to the city’s ongoing struggle.”
The ICC is scheduled to play the countdown every night until June 22, according to the artists. However, Wong told the NYTimes he feared the animation would be cancelled once its meaning became clear.
The Add Oil Team previously designed “Stand By You: Add Oil Machine for the Umbrella Movement”, which projected messages supporting democracy activists from people all around the world onto the facade of LegCo during the 79-day protests in 2014.
Watch the Countdown Machine in real time here.
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