Hong Kong Liberty Art Prize — Prizewinners Exhibition, Sapporo
- Project
- EXH-025
- Location
- Kinokuniya Bookstore Sapporo, 2nd Floor Gallery, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan
- Date
- 28 June – 4 July 2024
- Partners
- Hokkaido University East Asia Media Research Center, Flow HK (如水)
Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement produced artists. After the National Security Law took effect in 2020, many of those artists could no longer exhibit under their own names in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Liberty Art Prize was established to recognize their work — and to bring it to audiences where it can still be shown.
From 28 June to 4 July 2024, the Hong Kong Liberty Art Prize Prizewinners Exhibition was held at the 2nd Floor Gallery of Kinokuniya Bookstore Sapporo, co-presented by Lady Liberty Hong Kong, Hokkaido University's East Asia Media Research Center, and Flow HK (如水). The exhibition brought together award-winning works created by anonymous Hong Kong artists in the years following the National Security Law — works that document, process, and bear witness to five years of change.
On 29 June, a public lecture was held at the 1st Floor Inner Garden of the same venue. Titled Hong Kong's Pro-Democracy Demonstrations and Art: Five Years of Change and Solidarity, the talk was moderated by Professor Fujino Yohei of Hokkaido University's Media and Communication Research Institute, with presentations by Associate Professor Jen-Shuo Hsu (also of Hokkaido University) and Alric Lee, Founder and Representative Director of Lady Liberty Hong Kong. The lecture examined how the events of 2019 and after have been reflected in and shaped by the work of Hong Kong's artists.
On 1 July 2024 — the 27th anniversary of Hong Kong's handover — TV Tokyo featured Lady Liberty Hong Kong founder Alric Lee and the Sapporo exhibition in a special segment on its World Business Satellite (WBS) programme, covering the work of Hong Kong democracy activists in Japan.