"The Pillar of Shame" is at the G20 summit in Rome

27 Oct.2021: Latest news from Galschiøt about The pillar of Shame sculpture

Google translated into English:

Dear

"The Pillar of Shame" is at the G20 summit in Rome

The sculpture took part in an activist action in front of the Chinese embassy in Rome.

A group of activists has driven the 3 meter high copper model of "The Pillar of Shame" through Rome in Italy on 27 October.

To protest that China and Hong Kong universities will destroy and remove the memorial of the Tiananmen Square massacre June 4. 1989, from its campus - that is the only memorial on Chinese soil about the massacre.

They have landed the large copper sculpture by the artist Jens Galschiøt. Art employees from Galschiøt's workshop have driven a truck 2000 km from Denmark, through half of Europe so that it can participate in the G20 meeting in Rome.

They will use the sculpture to focus on the situation in both Hong Kong and China.

The summit has not yet started and the protests have already sounded! Luo Guancong, a democracy activist in Hong Kong in exile in Britain, gave a speech in front of the Chinese Embassy in Italy.

Here is a twitter post from © Luke de Pulford: with a short film of the action

:https://www.rfi.fr/cn/视频/20211027-罗马g20-中国使馆门前的抗议

丹麦雕塑家高志活(Jens Galschiøt)的“国殇之柱” 在罗马，2021年10月27日。 © Luke de Pulford

10月30日至31日举办二十国集团峰会的罗马成为来自四面八方的海外抗议中国政府的示威民众的汇聚中心。对华政策跨国议会联盟计划在罗马峰会期间在意大利组织大规模的示威抗议活动。峰会尚未启动，抗议声浪早已响起！流亡英国的香港民主活动人士罗冠聪在中国驻意大利使馆门前发表演讲。

Google translated into English:

The "Pillar of National Sorrow" by Danish sculptor Jens Galschiøt in Rome, October 27, 2021. © Luke de Pulford

Rome, where the G20 summit was held from October 30 to 31, became a gathering center for protesters from all over the world who protested against the Chinese government.

The China Policy Transnational Parliamentary Union plans to organize large-scale demonstrations and protests in Italy during the Rome summit.

The summit has not yet started, and the protests have already sounded! Luo Guancong, a Hong Kong pro-democracy activist in exile in Britain, delivered a speech in front of the Chinese Embassy in Italy.

Background and history

17 Oct. 2021

China has attacked art symbol of Tiananmen Square crackdown. We won the first two battles - but everything is uncertain!

We are under attack from China in Hong Kong. In a letter the democracy movement was given a deadline of 4 days to move the 9 m high sculpture, which is a memorial to the Tiananmen square crackdown in 1989, otherwise China would destroy the sculpture that has beeb standing at Hong Kong University for 24 years.

We are quite pressed for time, so we just send this short newsletter.

Everything has been chaos since, and we have mobilized our networks all over the world to prevent the sculpture from being destroyed. And it's been successful so far.

Thousands of NGOs, artists, activists, politicians and other good people have joined the fight to preserve the sculpture, and we have succeeded to postpone the destruction of the artwork.

At the same time, it has succeeded in setting a new standard for what U.S. law firms can allow themselves to do to help the Chinese goverment. Part of the pressure to prevent the destruction of the artwork has been directed at getting the law firm Mayer Brown to withdraw from helping Hong Kong University destroy and remove the sculpture. And we succeeded on the 15th of October.

So 2 battles have been won, but it is still uncertain whether we can get the opportunity to get the sculpture out of Hong Kong.

So we need all the help we can get, by informing about China's attacks on art and freedom of speech. If necessary, Forward this email to a friend or create one yourself.

All the activities have been continuously described by a huge press campaign. We have made a selection of the articles here - good reading - you can probably find something from your own country as well.

We have posted our own press releases and all documents in the on Galschiot's website.

Although we have worked ourselves to death, this struggle for art and the Chinese's right to remember their own history is also a very life-affirming experience. The whole process shows that it is possible for ordinary people to enact a little influence on the global stage.

7.380.000 link: A quick Google search word combination "Pillar of Shame" (a word that comes specifically from this sculpture, as we created it ourselves) today gives 7.380.000 links.

"We are still alive". We have written history and shown that there are limits to what the world will allow.

All the best

Jens Galschiøt - The artist behind The Piller of Shame
and his hard-working staff

Denmark 17 Oct 2021

Email: Jens @galschiot.com

Mobile: Tlf: +45 4044 7058

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The monument in Hong Kong

In 1997, I erected an 8 meter tall monument in Hong Kong in memorial of the massacre. This monument is so far still the only memorial about the Tiananmen Square massacre on Chinese soil.

Placing this sculpture in Hong Kong cost me a permanent expulsion from China and two expulsions from Hong Kong. I think it's important that artists, cultural groups, and others that defend human rights use their freedom of speech to tell the story of the massacre. I hope that you will help in doing this.

32 years after the massacre history seems to be tragically repeating itself. Now with Hong Kong as the epicenter for youth demanding their basic Human Rights and the Chinese Government forcefully fighting down the youth. China has passed landmark legislation to force national security laws in Hong Kong, effectively crushing the city's autonomy, removing pro-democratic forces from the parliament and sending pro-democrats in jail.

In February 2020 I erected ‘A Pillar of Shame’ sculpture in front of the Danish parliament, as a protest against that China is once again using extreme force against youth people demonstrating for their democracy rights, this time in Hong Kong.

The China's National People's Congress are now directly interfering with the justice system and the freedom of speech in Hong Kong, which is an unprecedented violation of the agreement between England and China for the handover of Hong Kong. China has fundamentally changed the status of Hong Kong and basic Human and Democracy rights are no longer respected as they used to be.

I hereby encourage everyone to protest against China’s assault on Hong Kong citizens.

Let us remeber the youth that lost their life at Tiananmen Square and let us support the youth in Hong Kong, so we will not see the same tragic outcome once again.

Kind regards,

Jens Galschiøt

About Hong Kong at the moment

China’s supression of free speech is spreading to Hong Kong. Galschiot is just one of many critics who have been denied entry. So the city is deprived of a cultural exchange that is taken for granted in all open democratic societies. The expulsions are a blatant violation of the principle of ‘One country – Two systems’ that was guaranteed as part of Hong Kong’s reunion with China in ‘97.

In 2013 Galschiøt managed to enter Hong Kong to repair ‘The Pillar of Shame’. In these very years Hong Kong stands on the precipice of realizing the 1997 agreements with China, to develop a real democracy in Hong Kong. But they are under a lot of pressure from non-democratic forces. The results of these negotiations are crucial for the future of Hong Kong.

Throughout 2019 and 2020 massive demonstrations in Hong Kong took place. They fought for their basic human rights that China promised Hong Kong's citizens when they took over the country in 1997, But the peaceful demonstrations have been met with comprehensive violent force from Hong Kong's police.

Today China has passed landmark legislation to force national security laws in Hong Kong, effectively crushing the city's autonomy, removing pro-democratic forces from the parliament and sending pro-democrats in jail.

A functioning democracy on Chinese ground, even though only in Hong Kong, is an extremely important symbol for the more than one billion living in mainland China.

Useful links:

Download the documents about Tiananmen 1989

Galschiot’s activities related to China

The democracy movement in Hong Kong:

HK Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China
E-mail: contact@alliance.org.hk, internet: http://www.alliance.org.hk/

Phone: +852 2782 6111

Contact Jens Galschiot: E-mail: aidoh@aidoh.dk, Internet: www.aidoh.dk, tel. +45 6618 4058, Banevaenget 22, DK-5270 Odense N

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About Jens Galschiøt:

Danish artist Jens Galschiøt has created many socio-critical sculptures and installations through the years. Most often they are placed in public spaces around the world – as needle-sticks and silent reminders of a world that, in his opinion, is out of balance, and where exploitation of the world’s resources, inequality and migration are a constant part of the picture.

General information about Galschiøt can be found at:

See Wikipedia:

Portrait of the sculptors CV (PDF)

To Gallery Galschiot

To Galschot webside