Commemorating Liu Xiaobo on the 2nd anniversary of his death
PRESS RELEASE
DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, Prague, has decided to house Liu Xiaobo bust permanently last month.
DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, a famous gallery in Prague, capital city of the Czech Republic, has decided to house a bronze bust of Liu Xiaobo permanently. It will be the first Liu Xiaobo sculpture permanently displayed in the world. The centre is the ideal location, considering the Czech people’s long-term support to China’s democracy movement and Liu Xiaobo himself as well as the inspiration Charter 08, drafted by Liu Xiaobo, took from Charter 77.
The bronze bust was commissioned by Humanitarian China and created by leading Czech sculptor Marie Seborova. A true masterpiece, it perfectly captures the profound insight and magnanimity of Liu Xiaobo. It was unveiled at DOX Centre for Contemporary Art on 15th April 2019. Organized by Humanitarian China, Amnesty International, the Vaclav Havel Library Foundation and Art for Amnesty, the event attracted international participants and was exclusively reported by Czech TV Stations. Xu Youyu, a close friend of Liu Xiaobo and signatory of Charter 08, and Zhou Fengsuo, president of Humanitarian China, attended the unveiling ceremony.
Having hosted the unveiling of the bust, DOX Centre for Contemporary Art has now generously offered to house it permanently, revealing their compassion for the Chinese people and support to China’s democratization. Chinese pro-democracy activists owe much admiration and gratitude to their Czech friends and feel greatly encouraged. A sculpture for Liu Xiaobo should have firstly been erected in his birthplace, or somewhere he used to live, or where he died. But the Chinese Communist regime hates and fears him too much to allow this to happen. Our Czech friends’ act of compassion and kindness is another reminder of our responsibility. We will ultimately place a sculpture of Xiaobo in China, his homeland.
Liu Xiaobo was one of the eminent participants in the 1989 pro-democracy movement. As a result of his unceasing efforts in the cause of democracy, he died of cancer in custody, despite of the attention of the whole world on the case of the Nobel peace laureate. The last Nobel peace laureate died in Hitler’s Nazi Germany. Liu Xiaobo’s fate highlights the threat of the Communist Party of China poses to the world. It also illustrates the human rights situation in China, as do the cases of Cao Shunli, Yang Tongyan, Peng Ming, Li Boguang, and Ji Sizun, who died two days ago. The CCP made sure that Liu Xiaobo was cremated, and his ashes scattered at sea, in an attempt to make him forgotten. With the sculpture, we remember Liu Xiaobo, as part of the struggle of memory against forgetting; we also draw the attention of the world to China’s human rights situation and the plight of China’s political prisoners, for instance, Wang Bingzhang, Ilham Tohti, Qin Yongmin, Liu Xianbin, and so on.
We started planning on the bronze bust after Liu Xia’s visit to New York in September 2018. We initially put forth the suggestion to Columbia University that Liu Xiaobo’s bust be donated to the university, where he was a visiting scholar in 1989. But they declined it. Similar things happened with previous projects. As with Liu Xiaobo and his body, the CCP’s shadow is everywhere.
Therefore, the decision of the DOX Museum of Contemporary Art is truly encouraging and enormously comforting to all those who care about Liu Xiaobo. Humanitarian China is also working with Art for Amnesty Founder Bill Shipsey to push forward plans to erecting Liu Xiaobo statues elsewhere, including the US Congress and world-renowned universities that are more concerned about China’s human rights than Columbia University. Another location will be found by the end of this year. There will be new statues of Liu Xiaobo erected around the world until he can be publicly commemorated in China.
紀念劉曉波逝世兩週年 捷克布拉格DOX博物館永久放置劉曉波頭像
【新聞發布】
捷克首都布拉格著名的DOX当代艺术中心在日前决定要把刘晓波雕像永久放置在该中心,這是世界上第一個永久置放的劉曉波雕像。布拉格DOX當代藝術博物館是最佳選擇，因為捷克人民對中國民主運動和劉曉波的長期關注支持，因為捷克“77憲章”對於劉曉波發起的“08憲章”運動的啟發。
刘晓波雕像由“人道中国”发起和出资制作，委托捷克当代著名雕塑家玛丽•塞伯洛娃（Marie Seborova）创作而成。雕像准确地反映了刘晓波的深邃而宽宏的神采，不愧为一件艺术大师之作。2019年4月15日，在紀念八九民運開始三十週年之際，刘晓波雕像的揭幕仪式在布拉格DOX当代艺术中心热烈而隆重地举行，该活动由“人道中国”、大赦国际捷克分部、捷克哈维尔图书馆、大赦国际艺术节协会等机构和团体发起与组织，参加活动者来自欧美各国，捷克电视台对活动作了详细报道，和人道中國主席周锋锁一起，劉曉波生前好友08憲章簽署人徐友渔教授作為嘉賓出席揭幕儀式。
捷克DOX当代艺术中心不但主办了刘晓波雕像的揭幕仪式，而且慨然决定永久放置刘晓波雕像，此举表达了捷克友人对于中国人民的深情厚谊和对于中国民主事业的支持，深得中国争取自由民主人士的敬重和感激，他们同时也深感这是一种鞭策。劉晓波的雕像，本应立放在劉晓波的诞生地、生活过或者去世的地方，但是中共当局对他恨得要死、怕得要命，现在还没有条件做到。捷克友人的热心和道义之举让我们更加意识到自己的责任，我们一定会把晓波的雕像安放在他的故土——中国。
劉曉波是八九民運的重要參與者，作為諾貝爾和平獎獲得者，舉世矚目下，他因為堅守理想在監禁中死於癌症，而上一個諾貝爾和平獎得主死於希特勒納粹德國。他的遭遇顯現了中共對於世界的威脅，也代表了中國人權的現狀，如同曹順利、楊天水、彭明、李柏光和兩天前剛剛去世的紀斯尊。中共對劉曉波挫骨揚灰，唯恐他被世人知道，我們以雕像銘記劉曉波，是記憶與遺忘的戰爭的一部分，以此紀念他的精神長存，也以此提醒世人關注中國人權狀況，關注還在獄中受難的政治犯，比如王炳章、伊力哈木、秦永敏、劉賢斌等人。
為劉曉波樹立雕像的工作，自2018年九月刘霞紐約之行後開始籌劃，最早向劉曉波在八九年做訪問學者的哥倫比亞大學提議，被哥倫比亞大學拒絕，此前其他立像工作也都無處安置，正如劉曉波本人和遺體的遭遇，中共影響處處可見。在布拉格雕塑的揭幕，也遭遇各種意外和阻撓。在此情況下，捷克布拉格DOX當代藝術館的決定，令人鼓舞，對於所有關心劉曉波的人們是巨大安慰。人道中國還在和大赦國際藝術家聯盟一起努力，推動在其他地方建立劉曉波雕像，包括美國國會和其他比哥倫比亞更關注中國人權的世界著名大學，在今年年底之前將找到另外一個地點，以後每年，都會有新的劉曉波雕像豎立在世界各地，直到劉曉波可以在中國被公開紀念。
Last updated: 2019-7-14 5:16 PM