"We Really Like ____ " Exhibition
- Project
- EXH-014
- Location
- FabCafe Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
- Date
- 1–25 October 2020
- Partners
- Act with HK, DDDDD HK
「私たちは、マジで____が大好きなんだぜ！」
The slogan first appeared at an anti-National Security Law protest in Hong Kong on 1 July 2020: "We Really Like Hong Kong So Much!" The exhibition's director borrowed it, leaving the blank deliberately empty — inviting Japanese visitors to fill in whatever it was they loved. Hong Kong's freedom? Agnes Chow? Dim sum?
Held at FabCafe Tokyo from 1 to 25 October 2020, the exhibition was organised by Act with HK and DDDDD HK as part of a Hong Kong × Protest Art Exhibition & Event Series, bringing the art and spirit of the anti-extradition movement to Japanese audiences at a time when the National Security Law had made displaying such work in Hong Kong itself increasingly dangerous.
Among the centrepiece exhibits were the 2-metre Lady Liberty HK statue and the head of the original Lady Liberty that had been destroyed after the Lion Rock ascent in October 2019 — two objects that together told the arc of the statue's journey. The exhibition also featured a timeline of Hong Kong protest art tracing the evolution of creative resistance from the outbreak of protests in June 2019 through the passage of the NSL in July 2020, as well as a Lennon Wall installation where visitors could leave their own messages.
A related lecture on 17 October brought together Japanese and Hong Kong voices on the relationship between protest and art, with speakers including artist collective Chim↑Pom, artist Kato Tsubasa, the Lady Liberty HK producer, and Hong Kong Baptist University Professor Wong Chiu-tat.
As Act with HK producer 痿痿 (pseudonym) said at the time: "Hong Kong protest art is extraordinary and creative. Under the National Security Law, displaying this kind of content in Hong Kong has become very difficult. As Hongkongers living in Japan, we hope that through this exhibition more people will understand what has happened in Hong Kong, and the indestructible fighting spirit that Hongkongers carry."