ai weiwei questions the migration disaster
For the 9th the annual Passages Insolites artwork truthful in Québec Metropolis, humanitarian activist artist You may have Weiwei presents his new monumental murals, life jackets. The enticing one set up captures a defensive rampart of the Royal Battery of QuébecCanada, questioning native historical past and European colonization. Exhibiting a colourful wall of 2000 life jackets that had been as soon as utilized by Syrian refugees and picked up in Greece by the artist himself, Ai Weiwei presents a delicate socio-political commentary on the hazards of the migration disaster.
all pictures by Stéphane Bourgeois
2,000 life jackets take over Passages Insolites in Québec 2022
For the set up of Life Jackets in 2016 on the Greek island of Lesbos, Ai Weiwei recovered 2000 life jackets that after belonged to Syrian refugees fleeing to Europe. Crowded collectively to type a colourful symbolic border occupying the ramparts of the Royal Battery alongside a small moat like a doubly protected enclosure or a fortified navy barricade, these remnants of the migration disaster confront the viewers with the perilous journeys of these desperately attempting to flee violence. of conflict.
With its context, the up to date Chinese language artist the large-scale set up not solely resonates with but in addition questions native historical past, echoing the migratory roots of European settlement in Canada. The Royal Battery was initially constructed by the French in 1961 as a navy protection construction to counter English invasion makes an attempt. Evoking the border demarcations that also govern human mobility, the architectural construction reinforces the aim of the work that covers it.
2000 life jackets take over the defensive ramparts of the Royal Battery
an incredible and monumental set up
Lifejackets by Ai Weiwei is the latest iteration in a sequence of site-specific installations first exhibited in Berlin and Vienna in 2016, after which in Copenhagen in 2017. Introduced now in Québec Metropolis for its main premiere north- American, the monumental life jacket took over 10 days of labor, mobilizing almost 15 full-time staff. Together with 15 different thought-provoking artworks on show at Uncommon Passages 2022the truthful’s signature paintings by Weiwei will occupy the ramparts of the Royal Battery in a delicate and transferring method from June 25 to October 10, 2022.
Humanitarian activist artist Ai Weiwei is famend for his devoted, iconoclastic and subversive observe that critiques the world’s financial, political and social imbalances. Thought of one of the crucial necessary residing artists on the worldwide scene, in 2021 Weiwei was named probably the most influential artist on this planet by Artwork Assessment journal. Moreover, his 2017 documentary Human Circulation, concerning the dire situations of refugees affected by conflict and disasters all over the world, gained 7 awards and 14 nominations at worldwide movie festivals.
the set up presents a delicate socio-political commentary on the hazards of the migration disaster
in 2016, Ai Weiwei himself recovered life jackets from the Greek island of Lesbos
Life jackets echo the migratory roots of European settlement in Canada
