Artist Ai Weiwei says Europe's response to refugees 'shameful, questionable'

Record ID: 102859

  • Title: Artist Ai Weiwei says Europe's response to refugees 'shameful, questionable'
  • Date: 19th May 2016
  • Summary: GREEK AND EU FLAGS FLUTTERING ON MUSEUM ROOF/ AI'S THE 'FLAG' TRIPTYCH, WHOSE COLOURS ARE INSPIRED BY THERMAL BLANKETS HANDED OUT TO MIGRANTS, FLUTTERING ON BALCONY BELOW AI'S FLAGS FLUTTERING VARIOUS OF AI'S 'STANDING FIGURE' SCULPTURE, A NEW WORK CREATED SPECIFICALLY FOR MUSEUM EXHIBITION AND INSPIRED BY ANCIENT CYCLADIC ART VARIOUS OF AI'S 'TYRE', TWO BLACK AND WHITE MARBLE SCULPTURES, A NEW WORK DEPICTING RUBBER LIFEBUOY RINGS USED BY MIGRANTS ARRIVING BY DINGHY BOATS TO GREEK SHORES VARIOUS OF AI'S 'CHANDELIER', A LARGE LIGHT FIXTURE AND SCULPTURE FROM 2015, A REFLECTION ON CHINA'S GROWING WEALTH AI SITTING IN A CHAIR BY 'CHANDELIER' (SOUNDBITE) (English) ARTIST, AI WEIWEI, SAYING: "I see how Europe react(s) to it, I think it's shameful, it's questionable, in many ways it's not legal and it's immoral, in many ways, and still you see the panic, the fear in the eyes of those politicians, the kind of excuse, the kind of reason they give to it is so ridiculous. Many years later, people will laugh about it, will feel shame to talk about it, just like when we talk about second war, World War II, how those migrants being treat(ed)." VARIOUS OF AI'S 'SURVEILLANCE CAMERA WITH PLINTH', A SCULPTURE FROM 2015, IN ROOM PAPERED WITH HIS 'THE ANIMAL THAT LOOKS LIKE A LLAMA BUT IS REALLY AN ALPACA' WALLPAPER (SOUNDBITE) (English) ARTIST, AI WEIWEI, SAYING: "I'm always trying to remind people what I stand for and what I believe, and it's never easy task, because you have to find the language which you deeply believe, and the language to make yourself believe what you are doing, you have to be emotionally involved, you have to have the knowledge and you have to meet the people, you have to trust what you're doing and that often take lot of involvement." VARIOUS OF WOODEN SCULPTURE 'DIVINA PROPORTIONE,' A 2012 GEOMETRIC INSTALLATION (SOUNDBITE) (English) ARTIST, AI WEIWEI, SAYING: "Especially as artist you have a chance to express yourself, that's your duty to come up (with) a form, a language to communicate with people, so I'm very privileged to have that possibility to create my own language, in dealing with what I concerns." VARIOUS OF STATUE BELONGING TO CYCLADIC MUSEUM'S PERMANENT EXHIBITION / AI'S 'TEAR BOTTLE/TEAR GAS CANISTER', A NEW WORK CREATED IN RESPONSE TO THE TEAR GASSING OF MIGRANTS BY AUTHORITIES VARIOUS OF 'TEAR BOTTLE/TEAR GAS CANISTER' (SOUNDBITE) (English) ARTIST, AI WEIWEI, SAYING: "We do what we can, and we are going to produce this film in next few months, and it will take us to Syria and Africa and probably Iraq, Afghanistan, several areas we haven't put our foot down yet but it's very important for the film." VARIOUS OF AI'S 'DUST TO DUST', A 2008 WORK REFLECTING CHINA'S CULTURAL REVOLUTION
  • Embargoed: 3rd June 2016 16:33
  • Keywords: migrants art exhibit Chinese refugees Cycladic Weiwei sculpture statue
  • Location: ATHENS AND IDOMENI, GREECE
  • City: ATHENS AND IDOMENI, GREECE
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: Art
  • Reuters ID: LVA0034IH6C7B
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Beneath the Greek and EU flags flying outside the Athens museum hosting Ai Weiwei's new exhibition, the Chinese artist hoisted his own on Thursday (May 19) to draw attention to what he calls Europe's "shameful" response to the refugee crisis.
    Ai's flags of Greece and Europe are coloured the metallic yellow and white of the emergency blankets aid workers hand out to newly arrived migrants to stop hypothermia. A third flag, hanging between the two, bears the outline of Aylan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian boy whose body washed up on a Turkish beach last year.
    Ai, often described as China's most high-profile artist, dissident and political activist, has visited migrant camps in Greece to film a documentary about the refugee crisis, and has also set up a studio on Lesbos, the island where nearly a million migrants entered the European Union last year.
    Speaking ahead of the opening of his first major exhibition in Greece, Ai said he was "deeply affected" by the exodus of people and Europe's response to the crisis, which it has tried to stem by agreeing with Turkey to send undocumented migrants back, while several European states have fortified their borders.
    "I see how Europe react(s) to it, I think it's shameful, it's questionable, in many ways it's not legal and it's immoral, in many ways, and still you see the panic, the fear in the eyes of those politicians, the kind of excuse, the kind of reason they give to it is so ridiculous. Many years later, people will laugh about it, will feel shame to talk about it, just like when we talk about second war, World War II, how those migrants being treat(ed)," Ai told Reuters.
    The exhibition at Athens' Museum of Cycladic Art includes new works inspired by both the museum's archaeological collection and the refugee crisis.
    Ai has been working on a documentary about the refugee crisis since December, and has already amassed around 700 hours of footage from Lesbos, the Greek-Macedonian border, Gaza and the West Bank. He plans to visit and film in Afghanistan and Syria in the coming months.
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