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Chinese dissident artist Badiucao has made a simultaneous call for democracy in two different conflicts, those of Catalonia and Hong Kong, in an action this Saturday morning in Barcelona's Plaça Sant Jaume. Badiucao, an expatriot Chinese who is one of China's best known cartoonists, used the so-called 'Lennon Wall' technique, which originated in Prague in graffiti protests against the former communist regime in the 1960s, was named after Beatles member John Lennon following his death in 1980, and then sprang up again as a device for free expression in 21st century Hong Kong.

The action, which in its current form involves combining post-it notes relating to rights and freedoms to form a mosaic of messages in a public place, was supported by the Catalan protest platform Picnic for the Republic. The artist planted himself in the middle of the Barcelona square with the Lennon Wall flag, consisting of 96 coloured squares to represent the Post-It notes of the Hong Kong Lennon Wall, which appeared spontaneously during the Hong Kong protests of the Umbrella Movement in 2014.

Fifty people who responded to a protest call by the Picnic for the Republic platform added messages in favour of the independence of Catalonia and the freedom of the political prisoners. For his part, Badiucao reaffirmed his call for dialogue to resolve the Catalan conflict, adopting the "sit and talk" motto popularized by the actions of another Catalan protest platform, Democratic Tsunami.

The artist is to be interviewed on Catalan public television's political talk show Frequently Asked Questions on Saturday night.