SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Chinese dissident artist Badiucao announced his first NFT collection to call for a boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics in protest of the Chinese government’s abuse of human rights and freedom. The Beijing 2022 collection includes five pieces of art depicting the Chinese government’s oppression of the Tibetan people, the Uyghur genocide, the dismantling of democracy in Hong Kong, the regime’s omnipresent surveillance systems, and lack of transparency surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.

The five pieces will be released as open edition NFTs, available for mint at beijing2022.art beginning February 1, 2022 on Chinese New Year and continuing through the Closing Ceremony of the games. In addition to owning the works, collectors will be able to write their own message of opposition to China’s authoritarian regime onto the blockchain as part of the NFT minting process, preserving it as a public decentralized record of protest.

“I have been battling censorship from China‘s authoritarian regime for more than 10 years,” said Badiucao. “When conventional galleries and venues are too intimidated to exhibit my art due to the threat from Beijing, the Internet has been a last resort for artists like me. NFTs and blockchain technologies not only provide a safe way to offer critical financial support to dissident artists, but serve as an important immutable public record outside of authoritarian tampering and control.”

Badiucao’s Beijing 2022 collection on display at the artist’s solo exhibition in Brescia in November 2021, despite demands from the Chinese Embassy in Rome to cancel the show.

This NFT collection was created by Badiucao as part of the Art in Protest Residency, a collaboration between Gray Area Foundation for the Arts and the Human Rights Foundation. The residency is an opportunity for artists whose art is dedicated to promoting democracy and human rights globally, to explore and expand their digital practices. Throughout the residency, artists-in-residence develop projects that use art and technology to create social and civic impact. In addition to Badiucao, the inaugural cohort of artists includes Belarusian illustrator and graphic designer Lilia Kvatsabaya, and Cuban performance artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara.

The proceeds of the sale will go to benefit the artist’s continued activism, and sustain the Art in Protest Residency.

The collection was initially released at the New World Center’s Soundscape Park as part of the 2021 Oslo Freedom Forum in Miami. It was subsequently canvased at various locations around Miami during Art Basel Miami Beach 2021, as part of a campaign to raise awareness among the global art community about the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and the weaponization of global sports events by authoritarian regimes to conceal their human rights abuses.

Badiucao’s Beijing 2022 collection was posted in various locations across Miami, from November 28 - December 11, 2021.

“Art in Protest supports dissident artists by giving them a platform to use their art to expose the abuses of authoritarian regimes,” said Holly Baxter, Executive Director of Art in Protest at HRF and Gray Area Board Member. “Through the Art in Protest Residency program, we are thrilled to host a safe and innovative space for artists who speak truth to power with their art, and support their efforts to make an impact in the global struggle against authoritarianism.”

To stay up to date on this project, join the Discord or the project mailing list at beijing2022.art, or follow Badiucao on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.

About Badiucao

Badiucao is an exiled Chinese dissident artist based in Australia whose work has taken on a wide variety of forms, including political cartoons, installations, street art, and performances. His art is renowned for denouncing human rights abuses and the suppression of free speech in China. After years of using a pseudonym, he decided to reveal his face and accept on-camera media interviews in the documentary China’s Artful Dissident, after several of his family members started receiving threats from the government. Today, his artwork is at the forefront of raising awareness about human rights abuses in mainland China, as well as Hong Kong, Tibet, Xinjiang, and Burma. Badiucao has received global acclaim for his work, including the 2021 The Amnesty International Australia Media Awards Cartoon, the 2020 Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent and the 2019 Courage In Cartooning Award. He was an inaugural artist-in-residence of HRF and Gray Area Foundation for the Arts’ Art in Protest Residency program.

The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that promotes and protects human rights globally, with a focus on closed societies. The Art in Protest program is HRF’s answer to the repression of creativity that authoritarian regimes impose. By promoting artists who embody the spirit of creativity and dissent, Art in Protest opens a dialogue about human rights and free expression, and aims to bring to a diverse audience the work of artists who are making an impact in the global struggle against authoritarianism.

Gray Area is a 21st-century countercultural hub catalyzing creative action for social transformation. Our mission is to cultivate, sustain, and amplify a community of creative practitioners who apply antidisciplinary practice — including art, technology, science, and the humanities — towards engaging with the complex challenges facing our world. Through public events, education, and incubation we maintain a platform that enables creators of diverse backgrounds and perspectives to transcend boundaries within deep artistic collaboration and gain agency to impact the world through category-defying work.

PRESS CONTACT
Joy Ding
[email protected]

华裔政治艺术家巴丢草宣布发起个人首个NFT艺术项目 《北京 2022》以批评中国政府的人权罪行

旧金山 —— 华裔政治艺术家巴丢草宣布发起个人首个NFT艺术项目 《北京 2022》以批评中国政府的人权罪行，并呼吁抵制2022北京冬奥会。该组作品将由五幅海报组成。它们分别对应了中国当局对于藏人镇压，维吾尔人种族灭绝，香港民主自由践踏，中国人全面数字监控，及对新冠疫情审查掩盖，导致全球流行的五项人权灾难。

作品将在以限时开放数量方式发布NFT。藏家可以从 beijing2022.art 的主页预购该批作品。
正式发布时间将从春节2022年2月1日起，至北京冬奥会结束。藏家在获得作品nft的同时，将可以在区块链上嵌入自己对于中国极权政府的批评和谴责，而这些评论将作为本次nft项目去中心化抗争的组成部分被永久保留。

巴丢草：“我和我的艺术已经于中国政府的言论审查缠斗超过十年。现实世界的画廊和机构往往惧怕于中国政府的威胁和报复，而拒绝展出我的作品。于是网络成了抗争艺术家们最后的堡垒。区块链和NFT的兴起，不但为政治艺术提供了安全和私密的经济支持手段，更为网络记忆与艺术的保存提供了当局无法审查和控制的庇护所。

图为巴丢草2021年11月，于意大利布雷西亚个人展览作品之一 ——《北京2022》。这次展览受到了中国驻意大利大使馆的恐吓与威胁。

该NFT项目，由巴丢草在 “抗争艺术驻村计划” 中创做，它是与Gray Area Foundation for Arts 和Human Rights Foundation的合作项目。该计划旨在支持艺术家通过数字技术的探索和拓展推动创作关注全球民主与人权。艺术家在驻村计划中探索文艺与技术结合的社会变革。此次计划除了艺术家巴丢草外，还有来自白俄罗斯的插画家与平面设计师Lilia Kvatsabaya，以及古巴的表演艺术家Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara.

NFT的收入将用于支持艺术家的继续创作和未来的“抗争艺术驻村计划”。

这组艺术作品首次亮相于在迈阿密新世界中心Soundscape Park 举办的奥斯陆自由论坛2021。随后于迈阿密Art Basel期间，在全城以街头海报的形式展出。这次活动旨在引发全球艺术社群对于北京2022冬奥会的反思。

HRF 抗争艺术执行董事兼Gray Area委员会成员Holly Baxter说到：“艺术是最有力且最具影响力的抗争方式，因为它使得观众参与其中并为之着迷。凭借艺术之力，艺术家得以链接和团结全球的民主运动。能够帮助发起这场独特的计划，我们由衷欣喜。它将支持抗争艺术家的工作，延展他们的自由，并在全球范围内，对抵抗极权主义产生深远影响。”

巴丢草简介

巴丢草，中国出生的流亡人权艺术家，现在居澳洲。他的创作涵盖多种艺术风格，包括政治漫画，装置，街头涂鸦和表演艺术。他的作品因其对于中国政府人权罪行和言论审查的的揭露和批判而备受赞誉。在匿名创作多年后，他在中国的家人受到了来自中共当局的威胁，于是他决定在纪录片《中国异艺者》中露出真容，并接受媒体采访，并在此后进行公开艺术抗争。今天，他的作品已成为唤起大众认知中国政府在大陆，香港，西藏，新疆和缅甸等地的人权罪行重要证据。

巴丢草获得了众多国际奖项，包括2021年国际特赦组织澳洲媒体大奖，2020哈维尔国际创意异议者奖，2019漫画家勇气奖等等。他也入选HRF and Gray Area Foundation for the Arts的驻村艺术家。

Human Rights Foundation

HRF 是一个无党派非盈利组织，它旨在推动和保护全球人权，并专注于专制社会。“艺术抗争计划” 是HRF给予专制社会压迫创造的有力回应。通过支持拥抱艺术和反抗精神的艺术家，”艺术抗争计划”为创意和异议打开了话题。它致力于为全球对抗集权的艺术家带来广泛的观众。

Gray Area

GA 是一个 21 世纪的反文化中心，旨在催化社会变革的创造性行动。它的使命是培养、维持和扩大一个创造性的从业者社区，他们应用反学科实践——包括艺术、技术、科学和人文科学——来应对我们世界面临的复杂挑战。通过公共活动、教育和孵化，GA维护了一个平台，使具有不同背景和观点的创作者能够在深度艺术合作中超越界限，并通过打破类别的工作来影响世界。

媒体联络

Joy Ding
[email protected]