Photo Exhibition "BLOCK CITY" by Hironori Kodama

Building materials and trash cans, burned cars, foliage plants.
In 2019, the protesters of the Hong Kong democratization demonstration left a huge number of road obstacles.

The obstacles are made up of everything that exists on the streets of this city,
They blocked the arteries of the city and rejected their opponents, ranging from main streets to back alleys to the university.

All the obstacles that were set up were quickly forcibly removed by Hong Kong police and others, but protesters continued to build them over and over again.
I thought.These actions were not just to prevent strikes and the invasion of armed police, but to regain urban space by destroying a city that was overcrowded by advanced capitalism and rebuilding it with its own hands.

And above all, I was fascinated by the "works by unknown artists" created by the inhabitants of this city, and the strong will contained in them, and I was absorbed in the shooting film them on the film before the irreproducible group of works disappeared.

Hironori Kodama

Born in Hyogo prefecture, Japan in 1983.

The news program director later joined NHK Japan Broadcasting Corporation. Produces news programs and documentaries. After leaving the NHK, working as a freelance photographer. In 2019, shooting for 10 months from the beginning of the Hong Kong demonstration. Published a Hong Kong protest photo book "NEW CITY" in 2020.