The dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has today announced he will be closing his Copenhagen exhibition early in protest at the Danish government’s new asylum seeker law.
Weiwei is angered by the fact that Denmark has just passed a law enabling it to seize valuables from refugees seeking asylum in the country. The law was passed on Tuesday and empowers the authorities to confiscate valuables worth more than £1020. While sentimental items such as wedding rings are exempt, other items such as mobile phones, watches and laptops can all be confiscated.
Announcing his decision to close Ruptures early, Weiwei posted a message on his Instagram with text explaining that he “regrets that the Danish parliament chooses to be in the forefront of symbolic and inhuman politics’. Weiwei has used his public profile to raise awareness of the Syrian refugee crisis for some time now. In December last year he visited a camp at Lesbos, and posed for pictures with the people there on his Instagram. He’s also set up a studio on the Greek island, which will produce projects about the refugee crisis – which has left an estimated 4.3 million Syrians displaced. Continue
