Tank Man Tango
On 4 June 2009, in 20 or so cities around the globe, people gathered to make a memorial for the massacre at Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989.
Tank Man Tango, Bielefeld, Germany, photographer unknown, 4th June 2009
Two decades ago, the world saw a man with two shopping bags on television, moving oddly before a row of tanks rolling towards Tiananmen Square, preventing their advance.
Tank Man Tango, Brisbane, Australia, photographer (m)elly nio, 4th June 2009
Through the mediating lens of the television, it looked like a remarkable choreography: a tense, sustained exchange between heavy military equipment and a single human being.
Tank Man Tango, Bristol, Great Britain, photographer Duncan Speakman,
4th June 2009
What the world witnessed was a spontaneous individual attempting to hold off tanks rolling into the square after Government forces had bloodily quelled students’ and workers’ demonstrations for change.
Tank Man Tango, Brussels, Belgium, photographer unknown, 4th June 2009
These televised couple of minutes became a worldwide symbol for non-violent resistance. The unknown man achieved iconic status, symbolising courage in the face of tyranny. He became the single most recognized, and reproduced, image of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.
Tank Man Tango, Brussels, Belgium, photographer unknown, 4th June 2009
Australian artist Deborah Kelly became preoccupied with the question of commemorating these events after meeting a woman from Shanghai who was convinced that ....
Tank Man Tango, Daylesford, Australia, photographer Sophie Risstrom,
4th June 2009
.... the Tiananmen Square massacre had never actually happened, and that the images were concocted by the US in an attempt to make China appear oppressive.
Tank Man Tango, Leipzig, Germany, photographer Hendrik Pupat , 4th June 2009
Kelly was met with the same state-sanctioned amnesia as British documentary filmmaker Antony Thomas, who in 2006 showed a group of Chinese students a photograph of the Tank Man. None recognized the image.
Tank Man Tango, Melbourne, Australia, photographer Megan Jones,
4th June 2009
In order to halt further erasure of the historical moment, and with the idea of collectivising the lone-hero figure, Kelly instigated the building of a memorial made of dancing bodies in cities around the world.
Tank Man Tango, Mexico City, Mexico, photographer unknown, 4th June 2009
Through simple instructions on YouTube, people were invited to gather and recreate the steps taken by tank man as he defied the military might of the state.
Tank Man Tango, Perth, Australia, photographer PVI Collective, 4th June 2009
The stylised choreography, online in English, German, Cantonese and Mandarin, was used by groups and individuals to mark the twentieth anniversary of the massacre in cities and towns across Australia, in Singapore, Korea, Europe and the Americas.
Tank Man Tango, Sidney, Australia, photographer Su Goldfish, 4th June 2009
People gathered to pay homage, to learn how courage feels, to remember in their skins. They made the memorial to show solidarity, to promise resistance, to bring life to history and make it their own.
Tank Man Tango, The Substation, Singapore, photographer unknown,
4th June 2009
It connected people internationally - giving them a way to collectively engage with ongoing violations of human rights and articulate them powerfully in public.
Tank Man Tango, Tuscon, USA, photographer unknown, 4th June 2009
Besides vigils and day watches, this piece of work, this ephemeral memorial made of dancing bodies triggers contemporary discussions of memorials in general; monuments, preferably cast canonical in iron and concrete....
Tank Man Tango, Weimar, Germany, photographer unknown, 4th June 2009
text by Deborah Kelly, Sidney, Australia
and Rayelle Niemann, Cairo, Egypt, June 2009
most of the photographs are video prints
MEDIA
→ video Tank Man Tango instructions
→ video Tank Man Tango remember
→ video Tank Man Tango, Bielefeld (D)
→ video Tank Man Tango, Bristol (GB)
→ video Tank Man Tango, Brussels (B)
→ video Tank Man Tango, Weimar (D)
RELATED WEB SITES
→ project web-site
→ livestreamings Tank Man Tango
→ story behind iconic picture
[ Arab Army ]
[ Coincidental Destinies ]
[ MODERN LEAVES ]
[ Moving on – Moving back – Moving on ]
[ On images, voices and information – a media approach to the Egyptian revolution ]
[ Setting ]
[ Tahrir Square: Social Media, Public Space ]
• Tank Man Tango •
[ War Tourist ]
for the time being
FEATURED THEME ON CITY SHARING
by ASUNCION MOLINOS GORDO
-
This project is an instrument for common critical analysis to help understand the reasons behind Egyptians’ diminishing …
by INAS HALABI
-
The project Letters to Fritz and Paul focuses on the expeditions of the Swiss cousins, lovers and scientists, Fritz and …
by SARAH BURGER
-
The planned modern city of Brasilia attracted me since a long time. Her defined shape, location and function proceded he …
by ADRIEN GUILLET
-
Youri Telliug talks with the artist Adrien Guillet about his project Citracit
Youri Telliug - What is Citracit …
by NIGIST GOYTOM
-
In 2013 more than 45 million people have been forced to leave their homes. This amounts to the biggest number of refugees …
by SULAFA HIJAZI
-
The on going debate on Arab identity and its (cultural) representation is strongly shaped by Edward Saidʼs formative …
by ASUNCION MOLINOS GORDO
-
WAM is a site-specific work that uses the historical trope of the cabinet of curiosities to explore the introduction of …
MORE CONTRIBUTIONS BY THE FOLLOWING
