The 2023 Hong Kong Liberty Art Prize: Art and Human Rights Advocacy across Borders
- Published in
- FIHRM-AP (National Human Rights Museum, Taiwan)
- Date
- 26 August 2024
An essay by Alric Lee, co-founder of Lady Liberty Hong Kong, in the eighth issue of FIHRM-AP — the Federation of International Human Rights Museums, Asia-Pacific, hosted by Taiwan's National Human Rights Museum.
The Hong Kong Liberty Art Prize was created by Lady Liberty Hong Kong to defend artistic freedom after the National Security Law and Article 23 forced Hong Kong artists — among them Kacey Wong, Ah To, and Justin Wong — into exile or self-censorship. This essay traces how LLHK and the Japan Hong Kong Democracy Alliance turned the prize into a censor-free platform and carried it across the Asia-Pacific.
Building partnerships across the region. Working with local galleries, universities, and NGOs, the team staged a ten-day exhibition at Chi-Nan Church in Taipei in December 2023 — drawing more than a thousand visitors and eight media outlets — and, in June 2024, the first Hong Kong Liberty Art Prize exhibition in Japan, with Hokkaido University in Sapporo. Alongside the shows ran lectures, workshops, and artist exchanges, chosen because Japan and Taiwan share both proximity and a commitment to freedom and human rights.
The obstacles. Political pressure came first: in Taipei, three renowned galleries declined to host, fearing that their ongoing business with mainland Chinese buyers — and staff who travel to China — would be endangered by association with the prize. Chronic underfunding came second, met through online fundraisers, art sales, and support from international human-rights organizations and art foundations.
Art as advocacy, and what's next. Lee sets out plans to run the prize annually or biennially and expand to art capitals including London and New York, while deepening ties in Japan and Taiwan — art as a borderless medium to keep the Hong Kong movement visible and to reinvigorate human-rights advocacy worldwide.