Day Twenty One – National Museum of Prague, Praha 7
Looking up at the massive art installation suspended from the ceiling, it’s hard not to feel anything other than small, for many reasons.
Ai Weiwei’s latest art piece is a 70 meter long piece with 258 figures inside a raft. Made of an inflatable material, “Law of the Journey” is meant to bring awareness to the refugee crisis. Weiwei uses his art to protest corruption and promote humanitarianism, and as his latest and largest work to date, Weiwei has outdone himself.
Lining a select few walls around the exhibit are pictures of Weiwei himself with refugees from camps he visited across the Mediterranean, as well as flat screen televisions mounted playing footage of boats full of refugees.
Below the raft are quotes from a variety of artists, all focused on humanitarianism and refugee experience. From Socrates claiming to be a citizen of the world before anything else, to Václav Havel talking about the folly of men, every quote relates to the refugee crisis and evokes a sense of frustration. There is still so much indifference towards this plight, and the fact that this is evidently not a new scenario to humanity is disheartening. Everyone needs help once in a while, and if anyone is strong enough to ask for it, it needs to be given.
Politically, this is an extraordinarily polarized time, seemingly worldwide. As of 2016, the UN had classified 13.5 million Syrians as “in need of humanitarian assistance” and what has the world done for them? Displaced in their own country, outside help nowhere in sight, and forced to go through treacherous and hazardous conditions just for the chance at escape, and certainly no guarantee of food, water or safety on the other side.
It seems to be reminiscent of Rwanda. As long as the injustice and horrors other people are facing are never directly addressed, no specific action has to be taken to do anything about it, and therefore no guilt if it’s out of sight and out of mind. But we’ve been through this before as a world a number of times, with World War II, Rwanda, any and every other war torn area with innocents caught in the crossfire.
This exhibit is an astoundingly powerful reminder and message, and the fact that it is at the front and main hall of this museum could be a good sign. Earth can’t afford to be this divided and indifferent and Weiwei’s art does an amazing job exhibiting that.
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