Press release from Jens Galschiot, Hong Kong 17 December 2005

When we got here we intended to inform the press through a series of press releases explaining what we are doing in Hong Kong, but it is not that easy to send mails from Hong Kong. We therefore send this mail to a few selected media.

We have uploaded a big amount free photos that can be used to illustrate the WTO activities in Hong Kong. We also placed a diary and a whole lot of press releases that we have been sending to journalists in Hong Kong about our activities (they are in English) at http://www.aidoh.dk/WTO

Here just a summary of what happened until now:

November 15^th 2005. We ship off three big groups of sculptures to Hong Kong for the WTO meeting in December.

We arrived in Hong Kong on Friday 9^th December and were immediately met by problems caused from the Chinese authorities in Victoria Park, where they wanted a huge amount of safety certificates, construction and insurance papers. We used three days and nights dealing with this. Afterwards we sent out a press release. 

Sunday 11th December. We succeeded getting the container with our 6 tonnes of sculptures out of the harbour. We had to make the offloading of the smaller sculptures manually in the middle of the street, so that we could take them with us to the demonstration at 2 pm Sunday. They were a tremendous success and became one of the main attractions in TV and newspapers all over the world, see our diary.   

Monday night. We finally succeeded erecting the sculptures (see the photos at aidoh.dk/WTO) after having threatened to sue the authorities in Hong Kong, through the renowned Hong Kong lawyer, Albert Hoo, whom Galschiot knows from his previous sculpture exhibition in Hong Kong. The big sculpture groups were placed centrally and they are a poignant eye-catcher at the alternative NGO meeting in Victoria Park.

Since then we have participated in a lot of NGO activities about WTO together with demonstrators from all over the world.

All of these events and activities are described in our diaries and articles and through the photos at www.aidoh.dk/WTO

It is not certain that we will find another opportunity to inform the press, so we recommend to regularly visit our website, that will (hopefully) be constantly updated with facts and photos. In our staff we have a TV documentarian who can deliver high quality footage about our activities in Hong Kong.

Our Hunger Boys will join the final demonstration today Sunday. We will take down the sculptures in Victoria Park at 7 pm – if we’re allowed to without an additional permit……

 

Contact us in Hong Kong: +852 9408 6455, aidoh@aidoh.dk

 

 

Kind regards

Jens Galschiot and his staff