Body Vacancy / 身體空缺
In commemoration of #HumanRightsDay, we wrote the names of over a thousand #ChinesePoliticalPrisoners in chalk at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
These names encircled Alas de Mexico (Wings of Mexico), a sculpture by Jorge Marín. Presented as a gift from the Mexican government, it was installed at the ICC in 2019.
The sculpture features a pair of wings with an empty space inbetween, symbolizing freedom. Marín invites people to physically occupy the vacant body position between the wings. Meanwhile, our writing brings to existence those #BodilessNames of political prisoners onto the same space, bringing attention to the physical presence of the #OtherBodies who truly belongs to here.
We began by writing on the sculpture’s steps: ‘XI JINPING, YOU SHOULD BE IN PRISON INSTEAD OF…’, followed by thousands of names of Chinese political prisoners. These names aren’t even close to encompassing all political prisoners in China, but representing only a tiny fraction. Due to the extreme opacity of China’s judicial system and the regime’s systemic retaliations, only a tiny portion of names have the fortune to be confirmed and recorded (including those internationally known figures #IlhamTohti, #XuZhiyong, #HuangXueqin, and #RuanXiaohuan). The majority suffer in silence, their identities unknown to the world.
In this way, the [wings-present] of the sculpture calling forth its own [body-absent], and the [names-present] of political prisoners calling forth the [body-absent] of Xi Jinping, together transcend political contexts to enact a fundamental debate on freedom and imprisonment.
*Apart from Xi Jinping, all written names come from ‘Prisoner of Conscience Data, Mainland China’(中國大陸良心犯資料庫).
BGM: Hauschka, Mount Hood
