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Warsaw: The Chinese government has attempted to shut down an upcoming art exhibition featuring artworks by Australian human rights defender Badiucao that depicts China’s President Xi Jinping devouring a child.
The show, due to open on Friday at the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw, Poland, focuses on Xi’s support for Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the partnership the pair declared on the eve of the attack.
Chinese-Australian artist Badiucao is preparing for an exhibition at the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw.Credit: Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art
China has since attempted to play peacemaker in the conflict, but it has not condemned Russia’s invasion, nor called for Putin to withdraw his invading army as part of its proposal for peace.
China’s ambassador to Poland, Yao Dongye, visited the Warsaw museum last week, and the venue released a statement saying the embassy had tried to have the show stopped.
“We would like to express concern and astonishment at the actions of the Chinese embassy in Warsaw against the Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, which have been carried out for several days, whose aim is to prevent the opening of the exhibition,” the statement said.
“A high-ranking representative of the Chinese embassy visited … demanding that the exhibition be stopped and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage received letters demanding censorial interference in the program.”
Xi Jinping is squarely in the frame for Chinese-Australian artist Badiucao. Credit: Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art
Access to the venue’s website was also blocked in China, the statement said. “We read the actions indicated above as acts of preventive censorship, against which we strongly protest,” it said.
Yao did not respond to requests for comment.
It is not the first time China has tried to censor the Australian-based artist, who also works as a regular political cartoonist for this masthead. In an interview before the ambassador’s visit, Badiucao said he had been due to have an exhibit in Hong Kong in 2018 only for it to be pulled after pressure from the Communist Party of China.
He has since exhibited in the Czech Republic, Italy and Belgium.
Chinese-Australian artist Badiucao prepares for the exhibition at Ujazdowski Castle’s Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw. Credit: Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art
“So I guess my experience in Europe proves that my art is not that bad,” he said.
But while his work is gaining recognition internationally, he said it was hard to get support to show his work in Australia.
“There’s so much self-censorship happening in the arts community, especially in Australia, to the extent that I rarely have any chance to show, whether it’s a commercial venue or a government-funded institution,” he said.
He said private gallery owners, who he would not name, had told him their middle-class Chinese customers would boycott them if they exhibited his art.
Winnie the Pooh has been censored in China, and Badiucao says his career has been hampered because of his critical work. Credit: Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art
“None of my European shows are me looking for the chance, the invitations come from the institutions themselves,” he said.
Poland has been one of Ukraine’s staunchest allies since Putin’s invasion.
“For me, this exhibition is very important: China is not what they claim internationally,” said Badiucao, who goes by a pseudonym to protect his family from further CCP harassment. “Poland, like China has a history of being oppressed by a communist regime for a long time.”
Badiucao has called his exhibition Tell China’s Story Well – a subversion of Xi’s mission to improve China’s image abroad.
“I want to be a bit playful with this slogan,” he said, describing the lead image of Xi devouring a baby’s body as “explicit”.
The image references Francisco Goya’s Saturn Devouring His Son. In ancient Roman mythology, Saturn devours his sons when they are born out of fear of them overthrowing him.
“It’s fair to use this analogy to show China’s human rights violations,” he said.
“It’s actually a twin image, this exhibition will feature two large paintings, one showing Xi Jinping devouring a children’s torso, the other is Putin eating a child’s torso as well.”
The show will end with Badiucao’s banner-sized depictions of the two dictators hanging side-by-side.
His family has been harassed in Shanghai and Badiucao said he could never return to his homeland because he feared disappearing.
“That’s my biggest fear,” he said.
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