Catalogue > At random

Eviction in Shenzhen (2019-Ongoing) is a long-term ethnographic series of experimental documentary films which follows the planned demolition of Cheung’s fathers ancestral village of Hubei in Shenzhen, China, as the government initiates a major redevelopment plan to take its place. The proposed project includes an impressive 830m tall skyscraper which is set to become the tallest building in the world. This will be accompanied with a modern shopping centre, restaurants, plus a small portion of Hubei Old Village preserved as a living museum and film location for hire. The new redevelopment will become one of China’s most prized architectural accomplishments, a visual spectacle, which pays homage to the economic miracle that is Shenzhen as the city which led China to its new position as a global economical and technological power. The film marks the eviction of the current tenants of the village who as low-income workers, are having to leave behind the cafes, food vendors, small businesses, residential homes and communities which they cultivated over a period of 10 – 20 years. Eviction in Shenzhen filmed over the course of this redevelopment period, will document these changes by recording the sociological make-up and ancient architecture of the village as it gradually disappears.  ? ??The film is currently in development and will proceed in chapters as the project develops. ‘Eviction in Shenzhen: Part 1’ (2019 – Version 1) captures the residents of the area during a visit to the area in May 2018. The next chapter filmed during February 2019 features the area taken during Chinese New Year, with a near 90% of residents now fully evicted.

Seecum Cheung is an artist, filmmaker and educator. She works with journalists and experts to conduct interviews with citizens, politicians and specialists in a bid to understand and reflect upon certain political moments in time. Films include interviews with politicians from the far and ultra-right in Germany with writer & journalist Richard Cooke & SBS Public Broadcasters (Interview with Lennart, 2016); coverage of the Dutch elections with writer & broadcaster Morgan Quaintance (The Dutch Window, 2017); a commission by NHS England with equality and human rights charity brap (Inequalities of BAME patients Cancer Care Study, 2018-19), and most recently, a long-term study of the gentrification of her father’s ancestral village (in Shenzhen, China) which began in April 2018 (Eviction in Shenzhen, 2019-ongoing). She currently teaches on the Social Practice Minor at Willem de Kooning Academie, Rotterdam.