Nothing to See Here by Hans Leo Maes
Nothing to See Here. The subtle art of graffiti suppression during the 2019 Hong Kong protests is a book by Hans Leo Maes, published by Building Books. For the design, French graphic design studio Building Paris used Clément Le Tulle-Neyret’s Immortel Infra.
Hong Kong, Summer 2019. Amid massive protests and increasingly severe government repression, graffiti is proliferating in the city and becoming an iconic expression of dissent. Hans Leo Maes/TypicalPlan documents and makes an inventory of the different forms taken by the incessant work of state officials to cover up, hide, or attempt to remove these inscriptions from public space. This book particularly highlights the smudged inscriptions of tram stops. Under the combined action of graffiti and attempts to erase them by the authorities, unique and ghostly visuals emerge, with a plasticity that refers to certain current forms of the post-graffiti and contemporary art. This pugnacity also questions the real motivations of a state determined to eliminate as quickly as possible all traces of protest.
With photographs and texts from Hans Leo Maes/TypicalPlan
The book has 224 pages and measures 11,5×16 cm. It includes 123 color pictures and 16 monochrome images, and was bound as softcover with dust jacket. Printed by PBtisk a.s. in Příbram, Czech Republic.
