VERTICAL CITY, HONG KONG

China, Hong Kong

An island, a city. An island of architecture with a geography of saturated light. A city that pierces you, swallows you. Hong Kong crosses the clouds, alongside the mountains, attracts the imaginaries. Phosphorescent, powerful, sensual, it vibrates, captivate, possesses. It is a city without a State, without political existence. A city that has benefited the status of a foreign colony throughout the 20th century. This status has isolated it from the political, economic and social vagaries of Communist China. Hong Kong still operates as an enclave. Progressively among the inhabitants was born the consciousness of the Hong Kong identity, the idea of a destiny proper to this territory. We can see that behind this flamboyant façade, which is offered by the vertical, bold skyscrapers, is a complex life. Evacuated by the explosion of rents, many Hong Kongers have no choice but to live in tiny, stifling, poor dwellings. Hong Kong is no longer the port of the scents it was at the beginning of the century. Today it is a hybrid city, a mixture of orient and occident, a city that writes a new type of urban poetry ...