We Crashed the World's Largest Art Exhibition

We Crashed the World's Largest Art Exhibition — 3 of 3

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Project: EXH-019
Location: Kassel, Germany
Date: 8 June – 25 September 2022
Partners: Ngodei

Artist: Lady Liberty Hong Kong
Title: There's No Art Without Freedom 2
Medium: Miniature Lady Liberty HK statues, 15cm and 7.5cm tall; Hong Kong protest flags
Venue: documenta fifteen, Kassel, Germany

documenta is one of the world's most prestigious contemporary art exhibitions, held every five years in Kassel, Germany. Founded in 1955 by artist Arnold Bode — who had been banned during the Nazi period — the exhibition was conceived as a way to reconnect the public with modern art, especially works the Nazis had denounced. The inaugural edition drew nearly 135,000 visitors and wide international coverage. Over seven decades, documenta has carried a sharp critical spirit, consistently using diverse artistic media to provoke reflection on contemporary social and political issues. In 2017, Argentine artist Marta Minujín created The Parthenon of Books: a one-to-one scale iron-framed replica of the Parthenon, draped with 100,000 banned books from around the world, displayed beside the very park where the Nazis had once burned books. As the exhibition drew to a close, visitors were invited to take two books home.

This action was a sequel to our 2021 intervention at Art Basel Hong Kong. Two Lady Liberty HK statues — one 15cm tall, one 7.5cm — along with flags that truly belong to the people of Hong Kong, formed There's No Art Without Freedom 2. With support from Ngodei, the works were rapidly prepared and smuggled into the venue, inserted without invitation into one of the world's most watched art events.

The goal was the same as Art Basel: to use the exhibition's international audience to amplify Hong Kong's story — punching far above our weight, letting the statues do the talking where formal participation was out of reach.