Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is condemned for 'disrespecting' the memory of Syrian migrant
06.02.2016 09:00
Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei has been criticized for recreated the famous image of a three-year-old Syrian refugee who drowned in Turkey last year.
The photograph of the body of Aylan Kurdi washed up on a beach in Turkey triggered international outrage as people saw the helpless toddler as the human face of the refugee crisis in Europe.
Ai's recreation has, however, been condemned as 'crass', with a number of prolific commentators arguing that his artwork is disrespectful to Aylan's memory.
Aylan, initially reported spelled Alan, his brother Galip, five, and their mother Rehan, 35, drowned as they attempted to cross the Mediterranean Sea to after fleeing the war in Syria.
In his own take on the refugee crisis, Ai staged a photo of himself lying face down on a beach on Lesbos, Greece, posing the way Aylan's body was found.
Ai is currently on Lesbos, he main entry point for refugees seeking a better life in Europe, where he is working on several projects with refugee-related themes.
The 58-year-old artist has revealed the idea to recreate the famous photo of Aylan came spontaneously.
'The photographer and journalist asked me to pose for a photo near the beach and to close my eyes,' Ai told CNN.
'I was standing there and I could feel my body shaking with the wind — you feel death in the wind. You are taken by some kind of emotions that you can only have when you are there.
'So for me to be in the same position [as Kurdi], is to suggest our condition can be so far from human concerns in today's politics.'
However, his work has not been applauded by all, with a number of people voicing concerns that the photograph was disrespectful to Aylan Kurdi's memory.
David Batty, a writer and news editor for The Guardian, tweeted that Ai's photograph was 'Lazy, cheap, crass'.
Artnet writer Henri Neuendorf expanded: 'The artist's attempt to capitalize on the heartbreaking fate of a young child is truly tasteless.
'It is important to raise awareness on an undoubtedly urgent issue, but this is not the right way to do it.'
Ai said last Thursday that he had decided to withdraw his works from two Danish museums out of deep anger at a new law allowing Denmark to seize valuables from migrants.
The Chinese artist is famous for works addressing human rights abuses, official corruption and the collision between Chinese culture and Western consumerism.
(www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3426557/Chinese-artist-imitates-photo-Syrian-toddler-beach.html?ito=social-facebook)
(dailystar.co.uk)
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