Art

Ai Weiwei built a memorial out of life jackets

The Chinese artist Ai Weiwei in Berlin a memorial for the drowned refugees of thousands of life jackets was built. The artwork at the Gendarmenmarkt is an action for the Filmgala “Cinema for Peace”.

With a crane, were the bright orange life jackets at the Konzerthaus am Gendarmenmarkt attached. They are regarded as a Symbol for all those refugees on their way to Europe in the Mediterranean sea, drowned. Already in January had the Ai Weiwei of a monument for the refugees on Lesvos spoken. “A lot of people have in the waves lost their lives, we need a monument”, quoted him as saying, the AFP news Agency.

The Chinese artist currently has a visiting professorship at the Berlin University of the arts, he is also working on a Film about refugees. This week he has for newcomers on the disused airport Tempelhof field were interviewed.

Not to be overlooked: The bright orange life jackets

Ai Weiwei with his actions again and again for sensation and that the device is also frequently used in criticism, most recently when he beginning of the year for the magazine “India Today” on
Beach of Lesvos photograph let. In doing so, he is the image of the drowned Flüchtlingsjungen Aylan Kurdi after, in September of 2015 the world was gone. The corpse of the three-year-old Syrian boy, at the Crossing to Greece drowned, was on a Turkish beach washed up.

In the year 2015, more than a Million people in Europe seek refuge from war and misery in countries such as Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, or Eritrea sought. Most of them arrived on the Islands in the Eastern Aegean sea. On the Crossing from Turkey to Greece drowned by 2015, nearly 700 people, most of them children.

as/sd/gri (dpa, SZ)