The Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, completed in 1968, is one of China’s most iconic infrastructural projects and a potent symbol of national pride. Spanning over 6,700 meters across the Yangtze River, it was the first double-decked road-rail truss bridge designed and built entirely by Chinese engineers, without foreign assistance, during a time of intense geopolitical isolation.
alternating yellow and white chalk on black blank subway advertisement spaces.
"NO ONE VOTED FOR ELON"
"RISE AND RESIST"
"RESISTANCE IS CONTAGIOUS"
"WHO WILL SAVE US? WE WILL SAVE US"
found on the uptown C train platform at 50th street station. found on february 9, 2025.
The Balloon Project, is a three-year-in-the-making Art Installation by Yan Kong in support of world refugees and migrants. It pays tribute to human spirit, courage and survival. The Balloon Project is a multimedia work incorporating mechanical engineering and visuals to fuse art and politics. 32 balloons inflate and deflate to simulate refugee and migrants' breathing while fleeing their countries to seek safety and freedom in the world.
Disabled people gathered to protest at the site where a memorial to the Peterloo massacre in 1819 is being built. We are keen to have a memorial to Peterloo, but we want one we can be proud of, rather than the one under construction, which will be inaccessible to many disabled people.
A town in northwestern Syria has become the creative center of the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad. Since the beginning of the uprising, the residents of Kafr Anbel have drawn signs that skewer the Assad regime and express outrage that the world has not done more to stop the killing in Syria.
Walking the rows of shoes—favorite slippers, old Army boots, gold stilettos—it’s the baby shoes that stop you cold. Shoes began to fill a plaza opposite Puerto Rico’s Capitol building, and by Sunday morning, there were more than 3,000 pairs, a growing memorial to the roughly 4,645 people estimated to have died in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.
Haeryun Kang reported the following for NPR on February 24, 2016:
"On the eve of South Korean President Park Geun-hye's third anniversary in office, protesters gathered in Seoul... to condemn the administration's increasing crackdown on free speech. These protesters were unlike any others Seoul has seen. They were holograms"
Animal Collective, Mumford and Sons and Duran Duran among performers who have turned concerts in state into fundraisers as part of NC Needs You movement
Even as North Carolina’s governor, Pat McCrory, refused to comply with federal officials over his state’s so-called “bathroom bill”, experimental pop group Animal Collective went forward with its scheduled show in the state over the weekend.
For a brief moment on Wednesday night it appeared that Belgium had disappeared. The main French language television station hoodwinked the country into thinking that it had split in two when it reported that Flanders had issued a unilateral declaration of independence.
Platform ‘Iranian Women of Graphic Design’ share open-access protest posters to amplify #WomenLifeFreedom movement—triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini—in Iran and beyond.
Part telethon, part variety show, and part party, the People’s Bailout Telethon kicked off the Rolling Jubilee, a project by the Occupy-offshoot Strike Debt. The Rolling Jubilee raises funds through grassroots donations, buys debt for pennies on the dollar, but instead of collecting it, abolishes it. The project works within the system of the secondary debt market in order to undermine it.
A video campaign titled Sympathy Cards, initially released in 2018, is going viral again.
The chilling video depicts, via hidden cameras, shoppers walking by or browsing the greeting cards section at a shop. Shocked, confused, some visibly upset, shoppers freeze when they notice that, along with the traditional selection of greeting cards, is a section devoted to school shootings.
Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, better known to the world as Bad Bunny, has once again proven that his artistry goes far beyond reggaeton and trap. On January 5, 2025 — the eve of Puerto Rico’s cherished Three Kings Day — the Puerto Rican superstar released DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS, an album that both celebrates his homeland and delivers a sobering message about its uncertain future.
Nadya Tolokonnikova is a Siberian artist and a creator of the feminist protest art collective Pussy Riot. Tolokonnikova’s political actions and wide-ranging performance interventions have established her as a leading voice in the fight against authoritarian power. During her residency, she will compose performances that demonstrate her multifaceted approach to resisting systems of oppression and dehumanization.
“My intention was not to disappear in the environment but instead to let the environment take possession of me” Said Liu Bolin. With his strong photography, Bolin vanishes into the city, creating a powerful statement about our relationship, as humans, to our surroundings.
Come across a poster like the two above on your commute recently? Laid out in classic MTA style, but adorned with Orwellian imagery and an appropriately ambiguous hashtag, they warn of two possible hazards to your health: an upcoming “airborne non-toxic test” in which the NYPD will disperse “harmless, colorless gas” around the five boroughs, and an at-risk nuclear reactor that’s just 28 miles from NYC.
In 2005, Emad Burnat got a video camera to record the birth of his son. That same year, Israel's security barrier went right through his village of Bil'in in the West Bank. The fence cut off some fields and olive groves on the other side.
When protests broke out against the establishment of the barrier, Burnat became the unofficial cameraman for the weekly anti-wall protests that drew support from around the world.
"May you live in interesting times" is the familiar Chinese saying, usually spat out as a curse. You can see why in "A Touch of Sin," a film by renowned director Jia Zhang-ke. That kind of time is now, in the history of his country. With four vignettes inspired by real-life "ripped from the headline" events, he shows what the great economic expansion of China is doing to the majority of its people.
Rectification of names
"If language is not correct, then what is said is not what is meant;
if what is said is not what is meant, then what must be done remains undone;
if this remains undone, morals and art will deteriorate;
if justice goes astray, the people will stand about in helpless confusion.
Hence there must be no arbitrariness in what is said.
This matters above everything."
Confucius
A TYPICAL EPISODE of Journal Rappé begins with Senegalese rapper Makhtar “Xuman” Fall dressed in a suit and seated behind a news desk. At first glance, the show looks like an ordinary newscast. But then Xuman (pronounced human) launches into his intro, rapping in French instead of talking. “Welcome! Make yourself comfortable. These are the news for you. Some good ones and bad ones too. But they’re all news for you.”
In the 1970s, Jaime Lerner, the former mayor of Curitiba, Brazil, transformed six blocks of the main downtown shopping street into a pedestrian zone in 1972, despite fierce objections from the merchants. He quickly accomplished this change in just three days by installing paving, lighting, planters, and furniture. The once-resistant merchants were impressed by the increase in their business and soon demanded an expansion of the traffic-free district.
I am a visual activist. Most of what I have done over the years focuses on black LGBTQIA+ and gender-non-conforming individuals from South Africa and other neighbouring countries. It’s about making sure we exist in the visual archive. I call myself a visual activist — or, rather, a cultural activist, because this work is not only about the arts; I’m focusing on education, I’m dealing with culture in a way that confronts a number of issues.
Artist and activist Favianna Rodriguez recently teamed up with Pharrell Williams' I Am Other YouTube Channel to create a moving new documentary series titled "Migration is Beautiful." Addressing the debate surrounding immigration policy in the United States and the overall perception of immigrants, the three-episode project focuses on the growing influence of artists in the political realm.
“I performed at Tiananmen Square in 1989, 15 days before the crackdown. I sang A Piece of Red Cloth (一块红布), a tune about alienation. I covered my eyes with a red cloth to symbolize my feelings. The students were heroes. They needed me, and I needed them. After Tiananmen, however, authorities banned concerts. We performed instead at “parties,” unofficial shows in hotels and restaurants”.