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FIREWALL Cafe

@firewallcafe

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Web art project about Internet censorship in the U.S. and China by @joyceyujeanlee

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What a tremendous privilege to hear the brave activist Fang Zheng speak about this experience as a student protestor at Tiananmen Square massacre. May the younger Chinese youth know the full history of their country. 🇨🇳 .
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#activist #zhangfeng #tiananmensquare #student #protestor #survivor #athlete #inspiration #june4 #china #history #truth #artistlife taken in Det Norske Teater by @firewallcafe

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8 years ago

"How a New York art show about online censorship was censored itself" by Simon Denyer of Washington Post! #firewallcafe #internet #censorship #freedom #techart #artforsocialchange #china #chinatownsoup @chinatownsoup @joysnaps taken in Chinatown Soup by @firewallcafe

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11 years ago

Great review by Claire Voon at Hyperallergic! #firewallcafe #techart #artforsocialchange #internet #freedom #chinatownsoup @chinatownsoup @hyperallergic taken in Chinatown Soup by @firewallcafe

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11 years ago

One of the greatest privileges of showing FIREWALL @osloff has been befriending the Gao Brothers—we met in 2018 when we both exhibited in Oslo, Norway. In 2019, they hosted me at their Beijing studio, where we broke bread together and dancers improvised with their sculpture (swipe for video). What a sweet memory @gao_brothers
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This year, Gao Zhen received the Václav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent from @hrf presented in his absence by Richard Gere. Gao remains imprisoned, sentenced to three years by a Sanhe City court for “infringing upon the reputation and honour of heroes and martyrs”, a 2018 law applied retroactively to sculptures he made in 2009.

FIREWALL Cafe created by @joyceyujeanlee exists to spotlight art under threat by state power, and the artists who refuse to be silenced.
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Art should never be a crime. Free Gao Zhen. 🎨✊

#FreeGaoZhen #ArtisticFreedom #FreeSpeech #GaoBrothers #OsloFreedomForum taken in Beijing, China 北京 by @firewallcafe

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a month ago

Another view of the FIREWALL Cafe interactive exhibit at @osloff this past June, designed by the talented @lucianfrench. Drawing inspiration from the nostalgic aesthetics of early desktop computers and video games, the installation invited visitors to step inside FIREWALL Cafe and explore how search engines shape what we see—and what we don’t.

The exhibition introduced FIREWALL Cafe as an interactive art project created by @joyceyujeanlee in 2016 to spark public dialogue about internet freedom. For the last 10 years, the project has asked questions that remain just as urgent today: What does internet censorship look like? And what’s behind the firewall?
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As FIREWALL Cafe celebrates its 10th anniversary, we’re reflecting not only on what has changed online, but also on what continues to disappear.

Explore the FIREWALL Archive yourself—link in bio—and compare search results across time and across platforms. Add to our Archive by searching terms you are curious to see in China… We’d love to hear what you discover!

#FIREWALLCafe #InternetCensorship #greatfirewall #MediaArt #FreedomOfExpression taken in Transformator Scene by @firewallcafe

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3 months ago

Huge thanks to the talented designer @lucianfrench for creating the playful and thoughtful Interactive Expo booth for FIREWALL Cafe at @osloff.

Inspired by the retro digital landscapes of the Microsoft Windows desktop and Nintendo Super Mario Bros., the installation transforms Internet censorship into an interactive environment that invites visitors to explore the FIREWALL Archive.
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This year’s installation compared search results for three terms—“Taiwan Independence,” “Tiananmen Square Massacre,” and “Uyghur Genocide”—captured in 2016, 2019, and 2026 using both Google and Baidu. Viewing these image results side by side revealed how two very different information ecosystems shape public understanding: one through the censorship of an authoritarian state, the other through the ranking systems and commercial priorities of a dominant technology platform.

As FIREWALL Cafe continues to celebrate its 10th anniversary, we’re reflecting not only on what has changed online, but also on what continues to disappear.
🔥🧱🖥️
Try these searches yourself through the FIREWALL Archive—link in bio—and let us know what you discover.

#FIREWALLCafe #InternetCensorship #TaiwanIndependence #RememberTiananmen #freeuyghur taken in Transformator Scene by @firewallcafe

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3 months ago

THANK YOU to the old and new friends who celebrated our 10th anniversary @osloff this past June!
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FIREWALL Cafe aims to cultivate public conversations about Internet censorship and freedom of expression across China, Tibet, and the diaspora. Every conversation in our OFF Interactive Expo booth brought unique perspectives on how information is shaped—and how collectively we will find ways to make the invisible visible.
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Pictured with founder artist @joyceyujeanlee are @ahalegua @chemilhamoooo and talented Tibetan activists, as well as comedian @alisultancomedy joining a FIREWALL Cafe search session.
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Try some image searches yourself on firewallcafe.com

#internetcensorship #webart #freedomofexpression #firewallcafe taken in Transformator Scene by @firewallcafe

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3 months ago

Thank you to everyone who attended the first international screening of my “Invisible Visible 未见之见” film at Oslo Freedom Forum 2026!
📽️🎞️
Appreciate your support 💝 and hope to screen this film elsewhere around the world. Please reach out if you’d like to bring my film to your venue!

#invisiblevisible #firewallcafe #oslofreedomforum #off2026 #artdocumentary taken in Vika Kino by @firewallcafe

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4 months ago

On the 37th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, HRF continues to remember the pro-democracy activists who laid down their lives to express their demands for a free and democratic China. Their stories have been erased from Chinese textbooks, websites, and the greater web in an attempt by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to absolve itself of its own crimes.

With the help of AI-powered censorship, the CCP is attempting to erase these images from search engine results. An analysis from the @firewallcafe, an art exhibition and image archive led by @joyceyujeanlee, reveals how search terms related to Tiananmen Square continue to be expunged from China’s internet.

Even in 2026, scores of prisoners of conscience, including Hong Kong lawyer Chow Hang-tung and Chinese dissident artist Gao Zhen, remain detained for commemorating the massacre. HRF stands in solidarity with those who remain firmly committed to carrying the torch of truth. by @firewallcafe

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4 months ago

FIREWALL Cafe celebrates 10 years❣️
For a decade, this project by @joyceyujeanlee has created spaces where artists, activists, technologists, researchers, and strangers meet across political, geographic and cultural boundaries.

Tonight’s screening of “Invisible Visible 未见之见” continues that trajectory… a film about what can be seen, what is hidden, and the infrastructures that shape both.
📍 Vika Kino Movie Theater, Oslo, Norway
🕕 6–8 PM on Monday June 1st, 2026

#firewallcafe #documentaryfilm #oslofreedomforum #off2026 #activistart taken in Vika Kino by @firewallcafe

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5 months ago

📽️ “Invisible Visible 未见之见” screens at Oslo Freedom Forum 2026 tonight!

📅 June 1 | 6p
📍 Vika Kino, Ruseløkkveien 14

My documentary short film follows my experience confronting censorship while creating work on internet freedom. From my 2016 installation FIREWALL Cafe — which exposed differences between Google and Baidu search results — to the disruption of its New York debut by Chinese officials, my film traces how censorship reaches beyond borders and into cultural spaces. It reflects on my ongoing battles with information control and China’s expanding global influence.
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#invisiblevisible #firewallcafe #oslofreedomforum #off2026 #documentaryfilm taken in Vika Kino by @firewallcafe

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5 months ago

10 years of FIREWALL Cafe❣️

To mark a decade of conversations across art and technology about censorship, we gather tonight in Oslo for a screening of @joyceyujeanlee film, “Invisible Visible 未见之见”.

How do artists, journalists and hacktivists make censored realities perceptible?

Join us for an evening of film and collective reflection during Oslo Freedom Forum 2026.

📍 Vika Kino Movie Theater, Oslo, Norway
🕕 6–8 PM on Monday June 1st, 2026
🎬 Invisible Visible (未见之见)

#FIREWALLCafe #OsloFreedomForum #InvisibleVisible #OFF2026 @documentaryfilm taken in Vika Kino by @firewallcafe

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5 months ago