R.I.P. Germain explores urban space, architecture, found footage, and the vernaculars that circulate beneath the surface. For Dissident Chorus, he presents two works—one constructed and one found—that examine how spaces and images are built, hidden, and misunderstood.

The first work, Silent Weapons For Quiet Wars (Build & Destroy), is a large-scale sculpture that resembles a storefront with metal shutters. At first glance, the work may look like an ordinary urban shopfront. But on closer inspection, its layered surfaces—shutters, glass, graffiti, and traces of spray paint—hint at a more complex reality beneath. The work refers to semi-legal, liminal sites found in cities, governed by their own market and moral logics, serving community needs that remain otherwise unmet. These spaces may be misunderstood or judged from the outside, but for certain communities, they function as spaces of trade, care, and protection. In doing so, this false front turns the same question on state-sanctioned institutions: what is concealed there, and who is taught to read it?

The second work, premiering in Busan, Play Dead, is a new film made from found footage taken from the UK Drill music scene. Germain brings together 161 clips, borrowing the genre’s visual language—fast editing, intense imagery, and repeated gestures—to construct a meta-music video. The film asks us to think about how Black trauma is consumed, represented, and at times misunderstood.

Together, these two works ask a shared question: What is made visible and what remains hidden? Who is taught how to read the difference?