On Sunday, April 17, supporters of the authorities detained the artist staged sit-down demonstration at the Chinese Consulate

participant actions in support of Aya Weiwei in New York. Source: artinfo.com

Sunday, April 17 at the Chinese consulates around the world was sitting demonstration in support of detainee Beijing dissident artist Aya Weiwei (Ai Weiwei) . Organized by the New York-based nonprofit organization Creative Time. The action, dubbed "1001 chair for Aya Weiwei, was an allusion to the famous artist's project" Fairy Tale "(2007), for which the exhibition documenta in Kassel 1001 brought the chair of the Qing Dynasty (1001 and resident of China).

According to the correspondent ARTINFO.com, in New York in a demonstration attended by approximately 150-200 people. They were mostly "creative personality", but they came and representatives of the banned China Democratic Party. Corresponding site sat next to young expats from China, brought leaflets in Chinese and English. They were not familiar with the work of Aya, but after learning about the campaign through Facebook, decided to come to speak "for Democracy».

similar protest in Los Angeles attended by about 40 people; few demonstrations were also held in San Francisco, Stockholm, Dublin, Barcelona and other major cities. According to The Guardian, in Berlin, held a silent protest, which was attended by about 200 activists. In Hong Kong, 150 supporters of Aya come to grips with the police, one man was reportedly detained.

Critics of the Chinese government in Germany is also calling for the closure of the exhibition Art of the Enlightenment, which opened at the National Museum Beijing shortly before the arrest of the artist. But Culture Minister Guido Westerwelle (Guido Westerwelle) stated that the exhibits (coming from the collections of major museums in the country) will not withdraw. According to director of public collections in Dresden, Martin Roth (MartinRoth), «this is primarily a punishment for the Chinese people." The newspaper Die Welt, however, argues that the exhibition failed: on weekdays it is visited by about 200 people a day.

In China, power trying to tarnish by Aya Media . He is accused of plagiarism, spreading pornography and even bigamy. In addition, the artist intended to accuse of economic crimes. As writes The Guardian, last Thursday, had disappeared one of the lawyers Aya Syaoyuan Liu (Liu Xiaoyuan). Shortly before this he wrote in his microblog that he was being followed "established identity».

material was prepared by Julia Maksimova, AI

Sources: artinfo. com , Deutsche Presse-Agentur, artinvestment.ru