Kintsugi: They Shattered, We Carry It Forward

Looking Back: From the Pillar of Shame to Contemporary Democratic Art

In 2022, in keeping with our commitment to defending human rights and democracy and to standing up for freedom of artistic creation, the Association used crowdfunding and 3D-printing technology to produce the largest replica of the Pillar of Shame in Asia. We then combined the Pillar of Shame with our June 4th commemorations to curate “Silence Is Not an Option: A Metaphor of Resistance,” a cross-border June 4th 33rd-anniversary art exhibition at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, inviting artists of different nationalities and mediums to express their support for creative freedom; in 2023 we followed with an educational, science-communication-style show, “2023 Contemporary Democratic Art Exhibition.” Both drew a strong public response.

This year’s photography exhibition, curated by the young curator K.C. Lai, takes as its starting point the Japanese lacquer-repair technique of kintsugi, symbolizing how democracy and freedom, once fractured by repression, can be mended and carried forward.

Through images of China’s June 4th Tiananmen Square massacre, Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement and Anti-Extradition Law Movement, and Taiwan’s Sunflower Movement, we join together fragments from different places and different struggles with a seam of gold. These fractured images of democracy, mended through kintsugi, become vessels that hold ever more voices and memories, letting the spirit of freedom shine all the more brightly through its cracks and seams.

These golden seams that mend the cracks are proof that Taiwan has become a bearer and guardian of the spirit of democracy and freedom. From the candlelight vigils held for those who died on June 4th, to every kind of gathering in solidarity with Hong Kong’s democracy movement, to Taiwan’s assistance to Hong Kong democracy activists — all of it testifies to Taiwan carrying forward the spirit of democracy and showing resilient solidarity.

Through this exhibition, we hope viewers will bear witness to, and reflect on, the resilience of the spirit of democracy and freedom, and come to understand how Taiwan can move forward for democracy and freedom in a way that is ever more resilient and ever more beautiful.

Goals of the Annual Visual-Art Advocacy Series

• Showcasing the results of an exchange platform: through a public documentary photography exhibition at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, paired with a gathering for overseas artists, this concretely demonstrates that the Association’s regular programming has become a platform for exchange between human rights and artistic-freedom communities at home and abroad.
• Affirming the value of creative freedom: combining the largest 3D-printed replica of the June 4th Pillar of Shame in Asia, the June 4th memorial vigil, and documentary photography of social movements across Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China, to remind the world how authoritarianism violates human rights and suppresses creative freedom in different forms, and to help the public understand the value of that freedom.
• Building cross-border artistic connections: through the collaborative format of a photography exhibition, offering overseas democracy activists and artists new ways to connect and work together.
• Promoting universal values: using this event to communicate the universal values of creative freedom and human rights to the Taiwanese public.