Chaiqian

DEMOLITION is a portrait of migrant labor, urban spaces and ephemeral relationships at a demolition site in the center of Chengdu, the capital of China’s sichuan province. At the edge of the site, the workers have set up their barracks; some of them have even brought along their families. Thus a small community has formed within the city: They do their washing, cook and eat, and in the evening the men sometimes venture into the brightly lit city. The presence of J.P. sniadecki does not only become important in moments like this: Again and again, the workers approach the “man from Harvard”, inviting him for lunch or explaining to him where it is allowed to film and where not. in the end, when the workers have left, an empty field remains; they have literally cleared the place for China’s economic miracle.