Ai Weiwei - Laundromat
""Everything is art, everything is politics', says Ai Weiwei. He calls for an understanding of art and politics as inseparable and all-encompassing. Clothes can also be art, and clothes can also be political. The clothes in the Laundromat installation belonged to refugees, most of whom came from Syria. With no prospect of further travel, they ended up in the Idomeni refugee camp on the Greek-North Macedonian border. Ai Weiwei visited the hopelessly overcrowded camp several times. When the camp was cleared by the Greek authorities in 2016, many belongings, especially clothing, were left behind. Ai Weiwei brought the clothes to his studio in Berlin and had them cleaned and repaired. Every piece of clothing tells of war, oppression, flight, persecution, and suffering. Sorted like in a laundry, they wait to be picked up and ask about the fate of the people who wore them."
Photographed in Museum K21 in Düsseldorf (Germany)
Ai Weiwei - Laundromat
""Everything is art, everything is politics', says Ai Weiwei. He calls for an understanding of art and politics as inseparable and all-encompassing. Clothes can also be art, and clothes can also be political. The clothes in the Laundromat installation belonged to refugees, most of whom came from Syria. With no prospect of further travel, they ended up in the Idomeni refugee camp on the Greek-North Macedonian border. Ai Weiwei visited the hopelessly overcrowded camp several times. When the camp was cleared by the Greek authorities in 2016, many belongings, especially clothing, were left behind. Ai Weiwei brought the clothes to his studio in Berlin and had them cleaned and repaired. Every piece of clothing tells of war, oppression, flight, persecution, and suffering. Sorted like in a laundry, they wait to be picked up and ask about the fate of the people who wore them."
Photographed in Museum K21 in Düsseldorf (Germany)