Client: EXMURO

Overview

Used life jackets cover the walls of Old Quebec’s Royal Battery, suggesting protective padding or a fortified barricade. But these personal flotation devices are the very ones used by Syrian refugees fleeing to Europe, where they were recovered by Ai Weiwei on the Greek island of Lesbos. Assembled by the thousand, they form a visible border, an artifact of the migrant crisis confronting us with the journeys of those ready to do whatever it takes to escape the violence of war.

The installation’s theme evokes local history by echoing the migratory past of European colonization. The Royal Battery is a military defense structure built by the French in 1691 to thwart English invasions. As a symbol of the borders that still govern human mobility today, the architectural structure intensifies the implication of the work that covers it.

Ai Weiwei is a humanitarian activist whose engaged, iconoclastic, and subversive art practice critiques the economic, political, and social power imbalances of the contemporary world. His works are included in the permanent collections of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

This work was produced in collaboration with EXMURO arts publics.

Goals

Presenting Life Jacket by Ai Weiwei about migrants can serve several purposes, including:

Awareness: The work can raise public awareness of the reality of migrants, their struggles and their often unknown or misunderstood stories.

Denunciation: Art can serve as a platform to denounce injustices, discriminatory policies or human rights violations of which migrants are often victims.

Dialogue: The work can encourage dialogue and debate on issues related to migration, stimulating thought and sparking conversations between viewers.

Empathy: By presenting the experiences of migrants in an artistic and emotional way, the work can elicit empathy and encourage people to put themselves in other people's shoes.

Valuing diversity: By highlighting the contributions of migrants to society and celebrating their cultural diversity, the work can promote understanding and appreciation of the richness of human diversity.

By combining these goals, Ai Weiwei's public artwork on migrants can have a significant impact on social and political consciousness, helping to change perceptions and attitudes towards migrants and migration.