Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Snake Bag

Snake Bag by Ai Weiwei, Ai Weiwei Libero exhibition, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence

“Snake Bag” by Ai Weiwei, 2008
“Ai Weiwei. Libero” exhibition
Palazzo Strozzi
Piazza degli Strozzi
Florence, January 2017

“The most compelling installation, however, deals with the Sichuan earthquake in 2008 in which thousands perished. Ai has funnelled his outrage into several composite sculptures in the years since embarking on his own investigation into the disaster, an enquiry that has blamed the guilty and contributed to his ongoing harassment by the authorities. In Snake Bag (2008), 360 identical backpacks stitched together into a serpentine line stretching across an entire wall recalls the 5,000 schoolchildren killed in the tragedy when the metal supporting new buildings buckled and collapsed.” (Up, up Ai Weiwei, The Florentine)

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