Ai Weiwei’s first major solo exhibition in Austria, at the 18th-century Österreichische Galerie Belvedere museum, includes a powerful site-specific installation in the courtyard of the complex’s Upper Belvedere palace. While the artist’s 12 bronze “Zodiac Heads” (a.k.a. “Circle of Animals”) surround the pool and provide some levity, the exhibition’s statement-making centerpiece is floating on the water—1,005 worn life jackets, resting like lotus blossoms and composed to form a lowercase letter F. The symbolic garments are arranged in groups of five (one could interpret this as a representation of a family), on 201 buoyant black rings. The red, orange, and blue jackets, previously used by Syrian refugees en route to Greece, were sourced by the artist/activist on the isle of Lesbos. Ai has been spending time on the Aegean island, which is off Turkey’s western coast, as he works on a feature documentary tentatively titled “The Human Flow.”
The Viennese installation is Ai’s latest endeavor in his mission to bring awareness to the ongoing refugee crisis. Earlier this year he wrapped the front columns of Berlin’s Konzerthaus with thousands of life vests, also sourced in Greece, and also produced a polarizing self-portrait photo recreation of the heartbreaking drowned toddler beach scene. Last fall three-year-old Alan Kurdi died while trying, with his family, to make it to Greece from Kobanî, Syria, and was found on the shore of Bodrum, in Turkey. “Translocation – Transformation” is on view now through November 20 at the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere in Vienna, Austria. belvedere.at
