Humanitarian and Artist Ai Weiwei is missing in China. He was trying to board a plane on Sunday and has not been heard from since. He has been a critic of the Chines government for years, while at the same time gaining a huge international reputation as both artist and activist.
Known around the world as part of the team that designed the Beijing Olympics "Birds Nest", but then later poo poo'd it, saying "it is part of a "pretend smile" of bad taste," Al Weiwei was visited several times this past week. His wife, several assistants were questioned and then released by authorities, but not before several of his notebooks and computers had been confiscated.
In other countries of the world there are several revolutions going on right now. The people are rising and they are fighting for some thing they believe in and deserve (and yes, some of them are getting f*cked up right now). Simultaneously in Libya, China, The Ivory Coast, etc...the government is suppressing the people and silencing their voice, or at least trying to.
Art helps people converse and contemplate. To study a piece is to learn history and philosophy. It can be a commentary of the human condition and it can inspire wonder for what we don't even know. Art is an expression, a type of voice, and it can inspire hope. It is what separates us from the animals. Art is what makes us human.
China has detained a voice. Free Ai Weiwei
* Guardian UK
* The power of artist. Al Jazeera piece.
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