The Pillar of Shame is set up in the Prague- Update to HK news list
 
Dear
 
On the 33rd anniversary of 4 June 2022 for The Tiananmen Massacre 1989, Galschiøt will perform a Pillar of Shame in Prague. The sculpture is set up in connection with a large art exhibition with china critical art at the Doxs Museum in Prague
 
He has just returned from Oslo where an 8 meter high Pillar of Shame was erected on 25 May see later in this email and is now going to Prague
 
It is a very exciting and leading exhibition in Prague that I look forward to participating in
 
You can download information about programs, the exhibition, participants and more here
 
 
 
Rundown for internal use:
 
For more info call Loretta who is responsible for the exhibition and the invitation to exhibit and present The Pillar of Shame project in Prague. Loretta Lau is herself an interesting artist with an extensive practice and from Hong Kong
 
Wai-ting Loretta Lau 
CEO of NGO DEI
+420 606125203
Email :  info@ngodei.org
 
 
Pillar of shame in Oslo
 
Galschiøt has just returned from Oslo where an 8 meter high Pillar of Shame was erected on 25 May: see mention in the press here
 
 
 
 
 
I forbindelse med udstilling i Oslo udtaler Galschiøt:
 
I was invited to perform the Pillar of Shame at the University of Oslo. The exhibition is organized by Amnesty International and the local Hong Kong committee. I am very happy to set up the sculpture in the original size of 8 meters right in the center of Oslo
 
It is especially important to exhibit it now that the sculpture has been taken down and banned in Hong Kong and thus has become a worldwide symbol of both the assault and the massacre of Chinese students in Tiananmen Square in Beijing on June 4, 1989 and on the massive repression of freedom of expression and the rule of law in Hong Kong.
 
There were many people at the inauguration and many good speakers, including from the university's rector, the Chinese artist Badiucao, and representatives from over 3 parties from the Norwegian parliament. So the line-up + became an important mark around the men's situation in China and in Hong Kong.
 
I thought it was important for the universities in particular to stand out in this debate. The Pillar of Shame has stood at one of the best and finest universities in Hong Kong and has been a guarantor of a free and open-minded teaching. With the dismantling of the sculpture, the university world in Hong Kong has capitulated - without spiritual freedom, a university is only the shadow of itself. And The Pillar of Shame was precisely one of the most important symbols that Hong Kong was not mainland China, but a place where one could speak and develop thoughts without prejudice
 
Hong Kong Pillar of Shame is still in Hong Kong and is located in a container on the grounds of universities we work daily to get it down to the container port. But there are no crane / transport companies that dare to take on the task of fearing safety legislation. 12 companies have said no so far. This is very worrying and the Hong Kong Government should intervene and state publicly that it is not illegal to take on a common transpot task in Hong Kong. Not even if it is a controversial sculpture that needs to be moved.
 
I have the last 6 months call on the Hong Kong authorities to issue an official statement on this. but it has done nothing.
 
It is shameful and does not bode well for the future as a vibrant trading city if no one dares to take on transport tasks due to uncertainty about security legislation.
 
 
Best
Jens Galschiøt
Or mobile +45 40447058
 
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Background and history
The Pillar of Shame in Hongkong
 
 
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
 
The democracy movement in Hong Kong:
  
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:
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Pillar of shame in Hong Kong Galschiot 2013

 Jens Galachiøt and people from China's democracy movementGalschiot refugees sculpture

 

 

 

 

 

 
This mail has been sent from the sculptor Jens Galschiøt's workshhop.
Contact to the workshop:
Galleri Galschiøt
Banevænget 22
5270 Odense N

Tlf : (+45) 6618 4058

Fax:(+45) 6618 4158portrait of Jens Galschiot 2012
E-mail: aidoh@aidoh.dk

websider:
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