FYI: about statements the former University of Hong Kong's council chairman Arthur Li. and a comment from jens Galschiøt

 

(This letter is Google translated and may therefore contain translation errors)

 

January 1, 2022:

 

 

I strongly dissociate myself from what the former University of Hong Kong's council chairman Arthur Li is saying. It is strange and completely unacceptable to be called a liar by a man who advocates taking down works of art that try to remember and mark Chinese history.

 

It is Arthur Li who is trying to obliterate history and wants to oppress everyone who is in favor of citizens' free rights to debate, and to remember what is happening in Chinese society both now and in the past. It is a disgrace that the monument "The pillar and shame" has been removed with violence from Honkkong University and it is a disgrace that the university people can go in to wipe out history.

 

 It's not me who's lying and manipulating the story, but perhaps Arthur Li is probably trying to create a breeding ground for a lie that the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre never took place.

 

I made created The Pillar of Shame in 1993 to 1995. It was my intention to create a monument that remembered various landmark crimes against humanity around the world. The same sculpture was to be erected in several different places in the world to mark these crimes.

 

Therefore, all the different peoples are represented the sculpture, Asians, Africans, European, indigenous peoples from the American continent ect, so that the same sculpture could mark different crime. Only the large shelf was very special for each country.

 

 The sculpture was called "The Nobel Prize of Shame" by the press. And China received the first "award" for the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989.

 

It is a very important point and an artistic decision that the sculpture should be the same everywhere it

should mark a crime, to emphasize that the essence of these crimes in the world is the same no matter where they took place

 

I decided that the first "pillar of shame" should be erected in Hong Kong in 1997, to mark the June 4 Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989.

 

I presented it in Rome, Italy in 1995, during a major international meeting. I got a lot of suggestions on where to put up a copy of The Pillar of Shame. But I chose the first one to be erected in Hong Kong in 1997 and I made a special copy and a special plinth for Hong Kong.

 

Some years after the year 2000, I set up a "Pillar of Shame" in Mexico to mark the killing of the indigenous people and in 2001, I set up another one in Brazil to mark the massacre of the landless peasants and the struggle for land in Brazil. It is still my intention that I will line up more in the world.

 

The pillar of shame in Hong Kong, is the most important of these sculptures, as it was the first to be erected and it has formed a school for the 2 other "Pillar of Shame" "in the world.

 

 "The old cannot kill the young forever" chiseled into the base of "The pillar of Shame" is a quote taken from the students at Tiananmen Square in 1989 and this quote is on the sculptures erected in Mexico and Brazil

 

Yours sincerely

Jens Galschiøt

Mobile +45 40447058

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I dag blir danske Jens Galschiøts skulptur Pillar of Shame (Skamstøtten) fjernet fra

campus på Hong Kong University. Skulpturen er et minnesmerke for de som døde i

massakren som knuste protestene på Den himmelske freds plass i Beijing 4. juni 1989.

Galschiøt, som selv eier skulpturen, har ved gjentatte anledninger henvendt seg til

Hongkongmyndighetene for å komme til en ordning slik at skulpturen kan bringes til

Danmark. Han har da forklart at det kreves særlig kompetanse for at skulpturen ikke blir

ødelagt. Galschiøt har ikke blitt informert i forkant av dagens operasjon. Vitneskildringer

tilsier at det er stor fare for at skulpturen er i ferd med å destrueres.

 

Denne handlingen føyer seg inn i rekken av Hongkongmyndighetenes forsøk på å viske

ut minnene i Hongkong om massakren. Tidligere har myndighetene stengt 4. juni-

museet i Hongkong, nektet befolkningen deres lovfestede rett til å markere ugjerningen,

tvangsoppløst organisasjonen som arbeider for frihet og demokrati i fastlands-Kina,

arrestert organisasjonens ledere for påståtte brudd mot sikkerhetsloven, og begrenset

tilgangen til 4.juni-museets nettsted.

 

Hongkongkomiteen i Norge fordømmer myndighetenes forsøk på å skrive om og

forfalske historien om den historisk essensielle, fredelige oppstanden til støtte for

demokrati og frihet i Kina. Om de ubekreftede meldingene om destruksjon viser seg å

medføre riktighet, er det metoder fra Maos kulturrevolusjon som nå er kommet til

Hongkong. Denne handlingen vil da vise hvordan Hongkongs tidligere friheter nå er i

fritt fall.

 

Med sine angrep på befolkningens kollektive hukommelse av ugjerningene i 1989 gir

Carrie Lams styre oss assosiasjoner i retning av et moderne barbari, med angrep mot

objektiv historiefortelling inspirert av George Orwell’s Nittenåttifire.

 

Kort bakgrunnsinformasjon

Pillar of Shame ble først vist under minnestunden i Victoria Park i Hongkong 4. juni

1997. Den ble deretter flyttet mellom flere av universitetene i Hongkong. Fra september

1998 har statuen permanent vært utstilt på Hong Kong University.

I forkant av sommer-OL i 2008 lanserte Galschiøt prosjektet The Color Orange, der

oransje farge ble brukt for å uttrykke støtte til menneskerettigheter. Som et ledd i dette

prosjektet ble Pillar of Shame malt oransje i 2008. Siden dette har studentene på Hong

Kong University malt statuen oransje 4. juni hvert år. Dette gjorde de også i år, noe som

kan ha vært den siste markeringen av massakren i Hongkong på lang tid

 

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 It is completely unreasonable and a self-immolation against private property in Hong Kong- I have now for over 3 months written to Hong Kong University that I would like to move the sculpture.

But it has been completely impossible to get in touch with them - all my attempts to contact them have been rejected and my lawyer in Hong Kong has also tried to contact them, but failed.

 

It is my private property and the sculpture belongs to me personally- I have written to them several times and the Hong Kong Alliance has sent out a statement that it is my private property and that they only have it on loan for exhibition at Hong Kong University

 

 

I myself have offered to go to Hong Kong with a team, and remove the sculpture nor have I been given the opportunity, Hong Kong universities will not talk to me.

 

 Countries around the world have offered to receive The Pillar of Shame and the Danish Foreign Minister has offered his help - but there has been no response from Hong Kong universities or other responsible authorities - it is a disgrace and an abuse and shows that Hong Kong has become a brutal place without laws and regulations such as protecting the population, the arts and private property

 

And it's even more grotesque that they use the Western holiday, Christmas, to carry out the destruction of the artwork.

 

 

Letter from the Alliance on Galschiøt ownership of the sculpture