Comments from the Hong Kong leader’s art museum spark new fears of censorship

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Written by Oscar Holland, CNNHong Kong

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam has told officials to be “extremely cautious” in ensuring that exhibitions at a major new art museum do not violate the city’s strong national security law, which it provokes fears about censorship in the territory.

Asked by pro-Beijing lawmaker Eunice Yung about whether the long-awaited M + museum risks “inciting hatred” towards China with some of its artwork, Lam told the Hong Kong Legislative Council which recognized the concern that the institution’s exhibits might cross an unspecified red line. ”

He added that his government respects “freedom of artistic and cultural expression,” but said that since the enactment of national security legislation, which criminalizes acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces, ” all of Hong Kong compatriots are obliged to safeguard national security. “

Lam’s comments come just days after M + director Suhanya Raffel said she would be free to show off politically sensitive works, including those by Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei. The museum’s collection of eight thousand items also contains several references to the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, a topic considered out of bounds by galleries in mainland China, as well as satirical depictions of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong. .

Open to the public at the end of 2021, M + will see 17,000 square meters of exhibition space distributed in 33 galleries. Often presented as Asia’s answer to New York’s Museum of Modern Art or London’s Tate Modern, the ambitious museum is the landmark of the West Kowloon Cultural District, an extensive arts district built on 100 acres of land recovered from the port of Victoria.

But the introduction of the national security law, a response to the pro-democracy protests that shook the city in 2019, has raised concerns about the possibility of censorship (or self-censorship) in the museum.

Although the legislation does not explicitly address political art, the city’s artists and conservatives have expressed, however, fears that pro-democracy or anti-Chinese works may fall short of their vague parameters.
For M +, this has raised doubts about some of the 1,500 items donated by Swiss collector Uli Sigg. Considered one of the most complete collections of contemporary Chinese art, Sigg’s items include a series of works by Ai, such as a 1997 photograph showing the artist placing his middle finger on Tiananmen Square.
The collection also includes several images of the 1989 crackdown on Hong Kong-born photographer Liu Heung Shing, including injured protesters who were taken to a hospital and a couple hiding under a bridge while tanks rolled over. of them.

Process of “cultural politicization”

The museum has not yet revealed which of the works of art in the collection will be shown to the public when it opens later this year. But at a press conference marking the completion of the building last week, director Raffel said there would be “no problem” in showing Ai’s work or the pieces alluding to the massacre of Tiananmen Square.

In a statement issued Thursday to CNN, the publicly funded museum deepened its position by saying it would “comply with Hong Kong laws,” while “maintaining the highest level of professional integrity.”

“The development of the collection and exhibition (of the museum) is based on research and academic rigor,” the statement said. “Like any museum, M + ‘s role is to ensure that our collections and exhibitions are presented in a relevant and appropriate way to stimulate discussion, research, learning, knowledge and pleasure.”

So far, Hong Kong’s national security law has been used primarily against opposition activists and pro-democracy figures, such as media mogul Jimmy Lai. But it has also coincided with the virtual disappearance of the art of protest, as well as the growing use of carefully drafted disclaimers of responsibility by cultural sites trying to distance themselves from possible faults.

For artist Kacey Wong, once fixed regularly in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests, the ambiguous wording of the legislation leaves her open to abuse by the authorities.

“The so-called‘ red line ’(by Carrie Lam) is so flexible that it is open for the government or its agents to use to prosecute anyone they don’t like,” Wong said in a telephone interview.

“Hong Kong is experiencing this process of cultural politicization right now,” he added. “It’s like what Ai Weiwei (he said) said, ‘everything is art, everything is politics.'”

Just this week, the screening of a documentary about Hong Kong protests, “Inside the Red Brick Wall,” was reported by a local movie theater. The decision was followed by a front-page editorial in one of the city’s pro-Beijing newspapers, Ta Kung Pao, denouncing the use of public funds for cultural organizations it deemed to violate national security law.

According to Wong, these latest controversies collectively point to broader pressure on artistic expression.

“All of these events are united,” he said, adding, “So it’s not just about the collection (roughly) of Uli Sigg, it’s almost a purge within government systems of arts and culture “.

Main image caption: M + museum in Hong Kong

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