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The Guardian
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Ai Weiwei installation to launch New York City social justice art program
Ai Weiwei is returning to New York with a new installation on Roosevelt Island. The Four Freedoms Park Conservancy announced on Thursday that it had commissioned the Chinese contemporary artist to help launch a new public art initiative in September. The new program, titled Art X Freedom, will invite artists to make site-specific projects that 'interrogate issues of social justice and freedom', according to a press release. Starting 10 September – a date concurrent with both the 80th session of the United Nations general assembly and the 80th anniversary of the end of the second world war – the public can view Weiwei's installation Camouflage. The project comprises an open sanctuary and structure draped in camouflage netting, inviting viewers to consider questions of 'vulnerability and protection, truth and concealment, and the reverberating impacts of violent human conflicts around the world', according to the press release. It will be Weiwei's first major public artwork in New York since 2017, when he installed a series of cages around the city to protest against the first Trump administration's harsh immigration policies. The 67-year-old has long been one of the most politically outspoken artists of his generation, even in the face of government pressure over his criticism of its human rights violations. In 2010, the Chinese government held him in a secret detention center for 80 days and repeatedly interrogated him for charges of tax fraud. He left the country in 2015, and maintained studios all over the world, including in London and Berlin. He now lives and works in Portugal, and is currently the subject of a large retrospective at the Seattle Museum of Art including four decades of work. His new project at the Franklin D Roosevelt Four Freedoms state park, a place on the southernmost tip of Roosevelt Island that memorializes the 32nd president's famous speech on human rights, embodies the artist's 'personal commentary on what is unfolding politically and culturally in our time', Weiwei told the New York Times. It is the first commission by Art X Freedom, which provides an annual budget of $250,000 for works altering the 3.5-acre park. Each artist will also receive a $25,000 prize. 'Public art is a mirror to our times,' said the initiative's co-chair, philanthropist Agnes Gund. 'Art X Freedom speaks to the urgent need to protect freedom for all, including freedom of speech, expression and the right to dissent – values that are the bedrock of democracy and justice.' Added Allison Binns, a venture capitalist who serves as Gund's co-chair: 'Ai Weiwei is globally renowned for his provocative and thought-provoking body of work and his staunch and unwavering advocacy for human rights. We could not have found a more perfect partner or resonant project to help us introduce Art X Freedom to the world and inspire park visitors.' Camouflage will remain on view until 1 December 2025. The conservancy will announce finalists for the September 2026 installation in the fall of this year.
New York Times
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Ai Weiwei Installation Coming to Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island
The Four Freedoms Park Conservancy announced on Thursday that it has commissioned the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei for a monumental installation on Roosevelt Island that will kick off a new public art initiative by the conservancy. The artist's work will be on view starting in September at the state park, where President Franklin D. Roosevelt's famous speech on human rights is memorialized in bronze and granite. Ai plans to cover sections of the park under camouflage netting and metal scaffolding, which the artist said in an interview 'is my personal commentary on what is unfolding politically and culturally in our time.' The project is the artist's first major public artwork in New York since 2017 and is the first piece in an initiative, Art x Freedom, that provides an annual budget of about $250,000 for works transforming the park. (In addition to having their art realized, each artist will receive a $25,000 prize.) 'We are really excited about turning a presidential memorial that is typically backward-looking into something that is very much forward-looking and continuously relevant,' said Allison Binns, a venture capitalist who is chairwoman of the program alongside the philanthropist Agnes Gund. Binns said the project would be timed to coincide with the 80th session of the U.N. General Assembly and the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. Selecting Ai for the inaugural commission was an easy choice, the chairwomen said, because he is one of the most politically outspoken artists of his generation. The 67-year-old left China in 2015 after years of pressure by the government for criticizing its record on human rights and has since maintained studios all over the world in cities including London and Berlin. He is currently the subject of a large retrospective at the Seattle Museum of Art that includes 130 works created over the last four decades. Ai's last public artwork in New York was during the first Trump administration, when he installed cages to protest the White House's immigration policies. Ai said that the new commission in Four Freedoms Park would invite visitors to think about the current administration's efforts to shape public discourse, which he described as 'shockingly outrageous.' But the camouflage has a lighthearted touch. It was created with a pattern of cats — and one dog for eagle-eyed spectators to find. 'I didn't want to use conventional military camouflage, because I find it personally repulsive,' the artist said. 'We've all seen too much harm associated with that pattern — it's essentially a uniform that negates life.' Instead, he chose an animal pattern to honor a cat rescue shelter near the park. 'I believe you can judge a society's humanity by how it treats animals,' Ai explained.
