10 of Ai Weiwei’s Most Powerful Instagrams from Lesbos

The Chinese artist is documenting the arrival of refugees on the Greek Island.

Screen Shot 2016-02-01 at 4.19.03 PM
Screen Shot 2016-02-01 at 4.19.03 PM

A woman sits on a pile of lifejackets in the sand, balancing a baby on her legs. Her blank eyes seem to see nothing in front of her -- not the two small children circling her, and not even the sea that she just crossed in a rickety boat.

A woman sits on a pile of lifejackets in the sand, balancing a baby on her legs. Her blank eyes seem to see nothing in front of her — not the two small children circling her, and not even the sea that she just crossed in a rickety boat.

This is just one of the more than 100 images that Ai Weiwei, the Chinese artist and outspoken critic of his Communist government, has posted so far from the Greek island of Lesbos. He has spent the last month there Instagramming the boatloads of refugees who arrive there each day.

This week, Ai was photographed posing in the same position as Alan Kurdi, the 3-year-old Syrian boy who temporarily grasped the world’s attention when he washed up dead on a Turkish beach last September.

Perhaps the most powerful aspect of the photos he’s posted to his public account is the dazed look on the faces of refugees who survived an arduous journey that killed more than 240 people in January alone — the highest death toll on record in Europe’s ongoing refugee crisis.

Ai set up a studio on Lesbos to raise awareness about refugees’ struggles through a series of art projects. “As an artist, I have to relate to humanity’s struggles … I never separate these situations from my art,” he told reporters in early January.
Below are ten of the most powerful posts to his Instagram account so far:

Images: Ai Weiwei/Instagram

Megan Alpert is a fellow at Foreign Policy. Her previous bylines have included The Guardian, Guernica Daily, and Earth Island Journal. Twitter: @megan_alpert

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