Internationally acclaimed #artist #activist and #filmmaker @aiww. Today marks the third anniversary the #Chinese government gave him back his passport allowing him to leave the country. Asked if he plans to go back to #China he said, “I’m considered a national treasure so they might want to keep me if I return.” He has no plans to go back because he does not trust the government. Ai Weiwei has devoted his life to human rights and freedom of expression. When he was one-year-old his poet father was exiled for 20 years. He experienced his own re-education when he was imprisoned and tortured for 81 days in 2011. He started the “Citizen’s Investigation” into the death of 500 school children as a result of shoddy construction after the 2008 Sichuan province earthquake. His #gallery show at #fineartsworkcenter in #provincetown called Rebar and Case, addresses the 2008 traumatic event, opened today. For those on #capecod, see the show before it closes August 30. The finger wallpaper surrounding the sculptures adds an extra touch of defiance to the show. Ai weiwei’s iconic finger pictures in front of places of power are symbols for the strength of the individual and against the “attitude to horror of power from one group of monsters to another.” One of the show installers told me the wallpaper was manufactured in PA and said he chuckled when he to found the box stuffed with Christian fundamentalist pamphlets. His home for the last three years is in Berlin where he lives with his wife and son. It was in Berlin he started researching the refugee crisis. From Berlin he traveled to the #refugee camps in Greece and Turkey. Those travels led to his gorgeous haunting film, “Human Flow,” on the global refugee crisis. He visits 44 camps in Kenya, Iraq, Jordan, Afghanistan, Gaza and the Mexican-US border. More than 68.5M people are refugees. You can see the essential #film on #amazon. Interviewed by the brilliant #journalist @christopherlydon @aiww encouraged the audience to trust their judgement, honor and respect the true self, speak up and not care about the acceptance of mainstream society. Respecting the true self is the only right action. (at Truro, Massachusetts)
