We now know the outcome of the lightning trial, held behind closed doors on March 30: three years in prison for the artist Gao Zhen, former member of the artist duo he formed with his brother Gao Qiang. Detained under formal arrest for two years, Gao Zhen must still serve one year of his sentence and should be released on August 25, 2027. The artist intends to appeal this decision.
Since his arrest by Chinese authorities on August 26, 2024 during a visit to his family in China, Gao Zhen, then residing in the United States, has not left his cell. His wife Zhao Yaliang and his son, an American citizen now aged seven, are banned from leaving Chinese territory. The latter were not allowed to attend the long-awaited trial, as were the American diplomats and representatives of the European Union present.
The sanction – the most severe that Gao Zhen could have obtained – is based on article 299-1 of the Chinese Penal Code, introduced in March 2021 by the eleventh amendment, which makes any “attack on the reputation and honor of heroes and martyrs” punishable by prison, supplementing the law on the “protection of heroes and martyrs” adopted in 2018. The artist’s defense denounced the retroactive application of the law, which had been promulgated several years after the creation of the works designated by the courts. But according to the New York Times, the prosecution also accuses him of having distributed images of these sculptures online until 2024.
Nearly 120 works were seized by law enforcement from Gao’s studio in Yanjiao, Sanhe Municipality. More precisely, the trial targeted satirical sculptures, produced in the first decade of the 2000s, mocking the “Grand Helmsman”. Mao’s guilt (2009) very realistically represents the former leader on his knees, looking sorry and with his hand on his heart. Another one, The execution of Christ (2009), features several Maos armed with rifles aimed at a resigned Christ with open palms. Finally, Miss Mao (2006) represents the dictator with a very kitsch bust, his tongue stuck out and a blank look, accompanied by an opulent chest.
When they created these provocative sculptures in the 2000s, the Gao brothers were already in the sights of the Chinese authorities, forcing them to take certain precautions: separating the head from the body of their sculptures, organizing clandestine exhibitions. In 2011, the two brothers obtained a green card allowing them to settle in the United States. But Gao Zhen’s arrest and subsequent conviction seem to be the culmination of the gradual hardening of Xi Jinping’s regime and the increased control exercised over artists. In 2014, the artist Guo Jian, who denounced in an installation the repression of the Tiananmen Square demonstrations – in which he himself had participated in 1989 – was expelled from China, officially for a visa irregularity.
In detention conditions described by his wife as very difficult – the artist was reportedly deprived of food and forbidden to read – and denounced by the NGO Human Rights Watch, Gao Zhen continues to create. From his cell, he sends his family portraits made from paper cutouts. According to the New York Times, the artist wrote in a poem addressed to his wife that he “does not regret having made fun of the bad guys”.
