Ai Weiwei Is Coming to Australia for the Release of His Refugee Documentary

Overview

Over the course of one year, Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei travelled to 23 countries to document the plight of refugees around the world. Australia wasn't one of them -- although it easily could have been. Ai will, however, be heading to our shores in March of next year as part of the 21st Biennale of Sydney, coinciding with the release of the film chronicling his travels, Human Flow.

A moving documentary that's mammoth yet intimate in both its scope and impact, Human Flow is pieced together from daily experiences in camps in Afghanistan, Germany, Kenya, Turkey and more, chronicling the personal toll for those trying to find a better life, while also conveying the bigger picture. Thanks to striking aerial shots that capture the sights of mass human migration, the latter proves much more literal in a visual sense than you might initially expect. With Ai also appearing on camera intermittently — conducting interviews, swapping passports and even dancing — his strong feelings about the global refugee crisis also shine through.

It's a topic the artist has previously addressed in everything from his studio in Lesbos to his current series of New York fences, with Human Flow proving an empathetic, urgent and impassioned addition to his body of work. Ai Weiwei's piece Law of the Journey — a 70-metre suspended inflatable rubber raft with figures — will also be on display at Cockatoo Island during his visit, forming part of the Biennale from 16 March until 11 June 2018.

Human Flow opens in Australian cinemas on March 15, 2018. The 21st Biennale of Sydney will run from Friday March 16, until Monday June 11, 2018.

Image: Director Ai Weiwei in Human Flow, an Amazon Studios release. Photo Courtesy of Amazon Studios.