[ad_1]
When pro-Hong Kong Chinese characters began to wonder what kind of art should be allowed in the city’s new M + Visual Culture Museum, it revealed a growing rift between artistic freedoms and territorial state censorship.
These tensions, which arose after the city imposed a tough national security law last year, will be further tested when one of the world’s largest art fairs returns to Hong Kong on Friday. More than ever, the territory’s former free cultural community is being covered in Beijing, critics say.
“M +, Art Basel and many international art names have opened galleries in Hong Kong, but all of that was before this new national security law,” he said. Ai Weiwei, The most famous Chinese dissident artist, and his works were exhibited this year at the M + gallery on the seafront in Kowloon.
“This is the last nail in this coffin,” he said. “They are trying to stop this independent culture. . .[using]national security law “.
Organizers of the Art Basel Fair, held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center, hope that the creative expressions on display will avoid issues that have complicated the city.
“The government has not asked us to do anything other than make our show,” Basel’s Asia director Adeline Ooi Art told the Financial Times that she is committed to “dreaming of becoming a Hong Kong international cultural center”. ”.
He acknowledged that the return of an art fair pandemic – and Hong Kong after unprecedented protests and political turmoil – had raised questions for the art world.
“The galleries were worried, the galleries coming from abroad [were] not fully understanding what is going on, ”he said, stressing that these concerns did not always reflect the reality on earth.
However, there is no doubt that the national security law introduced in June last year, critics say, criminalizes dissent, has led to severe repression across Hong Kong, imprisoned activists, removed teachers and ousted parts of the media.
Beijing lawmaker Eunice Yung has sought to spread this to the art world by asking whether M +’s work, which includes 26 pieces by Ai Weiwei, violates the security law. This prompted Carrie Lam, the territorial chief, to urge his officials to act “carefully” to ensure that all exhibits were lawful.
Ai Weiwiek said the museum would still show two of his works, “Still Life” and “Whitewash,” but that he had no “intention to show.”View study: Tian’anmen”There, he points his finger at the famous Beijing massacre in 1989 in Beijing Square.
Meanwhile, attacks on art have continued, and the pro-Chinese newspaper Ta Kung Pao has accused the Hong Kong Art Development Council of funding projects, films and theater groups that could also violate the law.
A cinema responded to the 2019 anti-government protests by canceling the screening of a documentary about the siege at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, as students tried to escape a police blockade by falling down the walls of the school.
The fair is growing in interest in art throughout the Greater China region, which includes Hong Kong, despite the pandemic. Until now, sales in the region were estimated at $ 10 billion in 2020.
According to 2021 Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market, last year Greater China surpassed the US to become the largest auction market in the world, with a market share of 36 percent. Report.
Christie’s announced in March the album of the most expensive western artwork ever sold in Asia, when it sold for $ 323 million ($ 42 million) at Jean-Michel Basquiat’s “Warrior” in Hong Kong.
“Many galleries in Hong Kong are doubling down. . . not only did he build a gallery building, but also studios and residences for their artists, ”he said of the Ooi boom.
The development of the new M + and West Kowloon cultural district is part of a regeneration driven by the strong characters of the Hong Kong establishment.
Bernard Chan, advised by Lam, expresses frustration that attacks on art endanger important industry
“Supervise and even censor the art on display in our museums and galleries. . . it puts us at risk of losing our worldwide reputation, ”he wrote in the South China Morning Post.“ We would embark on an economic sector where we have invested years of effort and billions of dollars, ”he added.
For many who exhibit at Art Basel, the regatta has left its mark. Visual artist Kong Chun Hei will be able to “measure” a speed across the floor made up of kitchen scales by visitors to his booth in a study to increase government surveillance.
Kwok Mang-ho, a 73-year-old artist who worked in Tiananmen Square a year after the massacre, said that although he did not feel censored, Hong Kong artists are now being asked to “control themselves”.
“I did crazy things when I was young. . .[Now]I do the right thing at the right time – that’s the technique of survival. I try to control myself, like in Art Basel. I walk quietly, I don’t drop fire bombs, ”he said.
[ad_2]
Source link
