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International Round-Up: Danish artist launches legal action to safeguard statue
TheCopenhagenPost
November 15th, 2021
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The pillar of shame in HKU (photo: PSH851)
Every student at Hong Kong University knows ‘Pillar of Shame’, Danish artist Jens Galschiøt’s imposing eight-metre-high, two-tonne orange sculpture of bodies deformed by pain and despair.
And now Galschiøt – who sculpted it in 1997 in memory of the victims of the massacre of 4 June 1989, when the Chinese army repressed pro-democracy student demonstrations in a bloodbath in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square – has reacted angrily to plans to move it from its current home outside the university.
According to Galschiøt, it could be easily damaged if moved, and he has applied for legal protection for the estimated 1.4 million US dollar construction, in order to obtain immunity so that the statue can be safely returned to Denmark.
The lever of legislation
The sculptor lent the work to the Hong Kong Alliance for the Support of Democratic Patriotic Movements, which guarantees its presence on the university campus.
But after the implementation of the National Security Law on 1 July 2020, which allows for authoritarian interventions on the vague grounds of “a threat to national security” to silence dissidents, several members of the alliance were arrested, as they were considered to be opponents of the nation.
Accordingly, the university last month demanded that the monument be removed.
“There is a legal basis for arresting foreign nationals who engage in activities critical of China. Therefore, I want a guarantee that I and my employees will not be prosecuted,” Galschiøt wrote in an open letter on Friday, which was reported by Reuters.
When NGOs and young talent join the fight
Amnesty International Denmark denounced HKU’s decision by saying it shows “how fear and self-censorship have spread in the wake of the civil rights crackdown in Hong Kong”.
A collective of Hong Kong artists called Lady Liberty is currently working on a 3D modelling of the work to ensure its preservation.
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