Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam is entering the last week of Ai Weiwei's exhibition #SafePassage. The show is focused on the artist's own experiences of constant government surveillance as well as the refugee crisis.
Photos by Anne van der Weijden
After being imprisoned and having his passport confiscated for several years, Ai Weiwei traveled from China to Germany back in 2015. Along with showing photographs that document his arrest and the period of constant government surveillance, #SafePassage is largely focused on his documentation of refugee crisis. Travelling to camps in Greece, Syria, Turkey, Italy, Israel and France, the Chinese artist and activist documented his experiences with his phone as well as shared them in real time on his social media. For this exhibition he created a wallpaper for the museum space consisting of 1000s of photos taken during these trips. The images display his encounters with people who continue to risk their lives to reach Europe, often finding their path barred by asylum procedures and xenophobia. Showing a reality that is far from the eyes of most people, the sheer amount of the photographs also represent the the scope of the crisis. Along with photographs, the exhibition includes marble sculptures and video projections. —Sasha Bogojev
