Action: Disable
location services Who is this for: Anyone who feels uncomfortable with the idea of being kept
under surveillance How difficult is it: A bit of effort finding and changing settings, and a bit of commitment to stay on top of any «updates» to privacy policies which might try to revive
location tracking.
Tracing their travels to Mecca, Jerusalem, Amsterdam, Hamburg and Senegal, the photos seek to uncover and engage with the particular and unstable memories of each
location — the birthplace of Islam in Mecca, inaccessible to most non-believers, and now paved over with parking lots and luxury hotel chains; the sacred sites of Jerusalem, fought over, destroyed and restored time and again for centuries; the ostensibly liberal cities of Western Europe, where paranoia,
surveillance and religious profiling are becoming the new normal; and Dakar, where the legacies of slavery and colonialism gave rise to unique Islamic identities and practices, which are increasingly
under assault by globalizing forces.
Yu Wensheng stands accused of «inciting subversion of state power» and has been placed
under «residential
surveillance in a designated
location», a de facto incommunicado detention for charges of «endangering national security».