Art/movemen t as a public p latform 45
3
Art/movement as a p ublic
platform
Artisti c creations in the sunflower
movement and the umbrella movement 1
Pei-yi Lu and Phoebe Wong
In the spring of 2014, the Sunflower Student Movement in Taipei protested
against the Cross-Strait Service-Trade Agreement (CSSTA), while in the fall, the
pro-democracy Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong drew the world's attention to
the young protesters' non-violent resistance, as well as their determination and
persistence. These two protest-cum-occupations triggered critical discussions
about democracy, iden tity and the future, while the large quantity and wide vari­
ety ofobj ects, images and performances created during the respective demonstra­
tions were unprecedented. How should they be considered from the perspective
of contemporary art practice?
Under the modernist paradig m, art is seen as autonomous, and thus art is
expected to keep its distance from politics to maintain its freedom of creation. At
the far end of the spectrum, however, art is often used to serve political purposes
during certain periods in communist coun tries. With the recent re-emergence of
art activism, a dialectical debate on the politicization of aesthetics and the aes­
theticization of politics is prevalent in the contemporary art field (Groys 2014).
In recent times, the overlapping practices of a1t and activism have been
addressed in a number of large-scale survey exhibitions (accompanied by
publications), such as:'Living as Form: Socially Engaged Art from 1991-2011',
conceived by Creative Time in New York in 2012; the seventh Berlin Biennial
'Forget Fear'in 2012;' global aCtIVISm' presented by ZKM I Center fo r Art and
Med ia, Karlsruhe, Germany in 2013-14; and'Disobedient Obj ects', held at the
V&A Museum in London, and which was staged from the perspective ofdesig n.2
These exhibitions have shed a new light on rethi1如ng the role of art within
social movements, neither seen as a tool nor as something useless. As Peter
Weibel, the curator of'global aCtIVISm'writes,'for some years now, a new form
of world-wide activism driven by citizens (lat. civic) has been in evidence, as
the word CIVIS hig汕ghted in aCtIVISm emphasizes. It is a movement spawned
by globalization, technological developments and the expansion of art'(Weibel
2015: 23). This'expansion ofart'- its man ifestation, its directions, and its depth
and breadth, deserve some closer attenti on. In the post-exh伽tion publication,
Global Activism: Art and Conflict in the 21st Cen tury, Wei bel furt her asserts that
the proliferation of'artistic perfom础ve practices' appeared as 'performative
democracy'(to borrow from Elzbieta Matynia) and as'a new form of public art'
(Weibel 2015: 59).
In this light, from the perspective of contemporary art, this chapter examines
the two movements through the following questions: In today's highly con­
nected world, what are the similarities and differences between the Sunflower and
Umbrella Movements within and beyond global/local resistances? What role can
art play in these movements? How should one view these creative e?'pressions3
whi-ch •are made and used during protests? What is the potential of the visual
aspects of these movements to appeal to political sens如lities? Do they serve as
propaganda or do they effect political or social change?
The geop o litics
The context of the Sunflower Movement and the Umbrella Movement
Both the Sunflower Movement and the Umbrella Movement took place in 2014,
but what were the global/local contexts of these two movements? After the 2008
global financial crisis, many demonstrations occurred for a varie'.y of r��so��'
including the Arab Spring in 2010, striving for democracy, and the worldwide
'Occupy-, movement that started off from the'Occupy Wall Street' den:io�str�­
tion, pr�testing against corporate greed and social and economic inequahties. It
is worth noting that Hong Kong's 2011-12'Occupy Central' campaign (camp
�
ing out in the -plaza beneath the HSBC headquarters for nearly ele�en month�)
re�ains one of the lengthiest 'Occupy' movements in the world. To a certain
degree, these cases have encouraged and inspired political and social movem_ents
going forward in terms of their concepts, forms and methods. The disc�ssion here
_
;ecognizes that global activism sets the backdrop fo r the occurrences of the �ove­
ments in questi�n, while the regional geopolitics in relation to China have deter­
mined the course of the two events as civil disobedience movements.
The Sunflower Movement: Against CSSTA
The Sunflower (studen t) Movement (from 18 March to 10 April 2014) was aimed
at protesting against the illegal passing of the CSSTA by the ruling r_arty,. t_h�
K�omintang (KMT). This unlawful practice was regarded as an'under-the-ta?le'
agreement, �r in the protestors'terms, a'black box'operation. Th� Eass_ ing _of the
C-SSTA reflected a crisis of democracy, and was seen as an act of Chinese incur­
sion into Taiwanese sovereignty.
The lifting of martial law in Taiwan in 1987 was a pivotal milestone in the
development- of democracy for the country, and this was followed b� th� ��o­
-
cess of寸aiwanization'in many social-political-cultural aspects. Since the 1990s,
following the Wild Lily Student Movement,4 Taiwan has gone through _a se�es
_
of demo;ratic reforms, not least of w hich was the first direct presidential elec­
tion in 1996. The first change of government happened in 2000 when the presi­
dential candidate of the De�ocratic Progressive Party (DPP), Chen Shui-bian,
took office. The DPP was in power for eight years, but the last couple of years
were marred by corruption s�andals surrounding President Chen. I�_ _2008, the
KMT returned to pow�r as Ma Ying-j eou became presiden t. Its pro-C血a stance