Tom Phillips - Beijing shuts down art exhibition on violence against women
Beijing authorities have shut down an art exhibition
celebrating attempts to combat violence against women, organisers said on Thursday. The exposition, timed to coincide with the UN’s
International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, was to
open at Beijing’s Jinge Art Gallery on Wednesday. But when artists arrived
hours before its planned opening, they found the doors bolted shut. “The reason our exhibition was called off is pressure from
higher authorities,” said Cui Guangxia, the Beijing-based artist curating the
event.
Cui, who was among dozens
of people arrested in mainland China last year after voicing support
for pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, said the exhibition was to have
featured the work of 64 Chinese artists – 32 women and 32 men. He said he believed authorities thought the event was too
large and did not like the focus on domestic violence and gender equality. Photographs taken inside the gallery show one installation
featuring a bra sewed on to dozens of crumpled Chinese banknotes featuring the
face of Chairman Mao. Another portrait shows a woman holding a banner
protesting against the sexual abuse of children.
China’s nascent feminist movement has been on the receiving
end of a Communist party crackdown. Five feminist activists were detained
in March after planning to distribute pamphlets and stickers
protesting against sexual harassment. Beijing-based feminists said security services had ordered
them to avoid any public commemorations of the 20th anniversary of the
UN’s Fourth Conference on Women in September. Liberal academics, journalists, artists, activists and
writers say
they have faced greater scrutiny since Xi came to power in November
2012. Dozens of human rights lawyers have been detained
or questioned this year.
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