L’installazione berlinese di @aiww è fatta con migliaia di giubbotti salvagente #SafePassagehttps://t.co/FtEWxTbAumpic.twitter.com/RhfniM35OJ
— DailyBest (@DailyBestNet) February 15, 2016
Ai Weiwei, prominent Chinese artists and social activist, revealed an installation of refugee lifejackets at the Konzerthous in Berlin. The piece is a reflection of the journey refugees make from Syria to European countries made with the lifejackets actually used and then left on a beach in Greece where thousands of refugees enter Europe.
This is not the first time the artist has made a statement about the dangers facing refugees and the importance of the global community to act and help them.
Two weeks ago, my colleague Joe McCarthy wrote a powerful piece after Ai Weiwei released a photograph of himself replicating the tragedy of 3-year-old Alan Kurdi, who was found dead facedown on the beach in Greece.
Ai Weiwei camped for months on the beaches of the Greek island of Lesbos, an entry point for refugees making the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean sea to reach Europe.
While he was there the island’s Mayor Spyros Galinos donated 14,000 lifejackets to the artist in hopes that he could mobilize the global community to end the abusive prices refugees pay to smugglers for a “safe passage”--which is often anything but safe.
The lifejackets are made in Turkey, often by people in desperate situations in sweatshops, sold to refugees and are little use in a real emergency. Despite traffickers sell them at a high price to the refugees.
In the time since Ai Weiwei took posession of the lifejackets, Weiwei shut down an earlier exhibit, which was set to open in Copenhagen, after Denmark decided to collect valuables from refugees seeking asylum.
“They just want basic human dignity, no bombs, no fear...They come with nothing, barefoot, in such cold, they have to walk across the rocky beach. Then you have this news; it made me feel very angry,” said Weiwei after the Danish parliament passed the law.
Today however, the artist hung 14,000 bright orange lifejackets from the columns of the famous landmark concert hall in Berlin--the capital of a county that has welcomed more refugees than any other in Europe and where over 573,828 currently reside.
The lifevests serve as a reminder to the world of the refugees' plight. The deceit and abuse from traffickers and communities shutting them out when attempting the perilous journey. His art stands as a call to the global community to support this vulnerable.
Since January alone, 410 refugees who’ve tried to cross the Mediterranean are either dead or missing according to the International Organization for Migration.
Reflecting on his time in Lesbos, Weiwei said, “My moments with refugees in the past months have been intense. I [saw] thousands come daily, children, babies, pregnant women, old ladies, a young boy with one arm.”
Ai Weiwei is asking for #SafePassage for refugees. Let’s make sure in 2016 all refugees who make the dangerous journey are welcome.