Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei talks about the migrant crisis with his work. His first documentary 'Human Flow', which was filmed on the Greek island of Lesvos, will premiere on August 30 at the Venice Film Festival.
Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei, who turns 60 on August 28, lives in Berlin, far from his home country. China has obstructed his activity in every possible way, arresting him and taking away his passport so he was previously forced to live in Beijing. Once he got his passport back, he moved abroad and has become a witness of the estrangement experienced by migrants through his art and life. His rubber boats decorating the faade of Palazzo Strozzi in Florence during an exhibit in January were an example of art as a political gesture. In this perspective, his first documentary Human Flow will premiere at the 74th international Venice Film Festival (August 30 - September 9). The documentary was made on the Greek island of Lesvos.
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The theme of migration has increasingly become central for the Chinese artist. ''There isn't a refugee crisis but rather a human crisis. The border isn't Lesvos but our mind and soul'', said the artist. Along with the dinghies on Palazzo Strozzi, Ai Weiwei also made an installation with 10,000 life vests that were hung in February 2016 on the columns of Berlin's Konzerthaus, real life jackets that were used by refugees who arrived on Lesvos. He created a similar installation for Vienna's Belvedere palace. Human Flow sheds light on refugee crisis The Human Flow at the center of the artist's documentary to be screened in Venice refers to the astounding global refugee crisis. The artist met refugees in Lesvos, where he returned several times, and then met them over two years in 23 nations including Greece, Bangladesh, Kenya, Gaza and the Mexico-US border to try to capture an extremely difficult human condition that today concerns over 65 million displaced people who have fled their homes to get a new life.
''In December 2015 - he said - I travelled to Lesvos to get a closer look at migrants arriving on European coasts. I then decided to make a film analyzing the conditions of the ongoing migrant flow and the unwilling movement of the population - the most consistent since World War Two - and what our reaction to the crisis revealed about our humanity. While the documentary was being filmed, I visited over 40 refugee camps and conducted hundreds of interviews to try to get a better understanding of the global condition that is affecting our time''. Anyone could be a refugee, peace is temporary - artist
The film is critical towards the situation in the world concerning these themes and in particular the administration of US President Donald Trump. In a rare interview, the Chinese artist told AFP that anyone could be a refugee. The refugee crisis is ''de facto a humanitarian emergency'', he said. It doesn't matter who is the refugee, he also said, ''it could be you or it could be me''. ''I believe that the problem should be understood by those who are lucky to live in peace''.''I think peace is always a temporary situation, nobody can be certain to always live in peace''.
Talking about Trump's America, he said US politics was ''sad and degrading'', citing ''many steps backwards'' on several fronts. Produced by Ai Weiwei (with Participant Media and Rai Cinema, in association with AC Films), the documentary has been bought by Amazon, among others, and will premiere in movie theaters in the US.