For the past year, the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has been traveling to countries with large migrant and refugee populations -- 22 countries in all -- for a feature-length documentary titled Human Flow, which he has just announced will be released this summer. But Ai is reluctant to use the term "refugee crisis." "It's a human crisis," he told reporters from Agence France-Presse last week. "A refugee could be anybody. It could be you or me."
After all, he reasons, the only difference between a citizen and a refugee is circumstance -- and "peace is always temporary." There are currently more than 65 million displaced people in the world, according to the UN Refugee Agency.
Ai speaks from experience, having grown up in a remote region of northeastern China where his father, the poet Ai Qing, was exiled after falling out with the regime of Chairman Zedong. Ai, too, has faced extraordinary persecution for his activism and art. In 2011 he was jailed for 81 days for alleged "financial crimes," though supporters and human rights groups believe his detention was politically motivated, yet another instance of Chinese authorities cracking down on dissidents.
It was by no means the first time that Ai had received international attention. Indeed, his name is practically synonymous with anti-authoritarian critiques of China and other oppressive regimes. In 2005 he began blogging criticism of the Chinese government and has been outspoken on Twitter as well.
Nor is this the first time he has taken on the topic of his new film. Last year, Ai made headlines for a controversial installation at the Berlin Konzerthaus comprised of 14,000 life jackets worn by refugees. He also recreated the now-famous photograph of the 3-year-old Syrian boy who drowned off the shore of Turkey in 2015, drawing considerable ire across the political spectrum.
Some have speculated that Human Flow is an effort to make amends for the latter work, in particular, which many detractors saw as heartless and crass, an ostensibly humanitarian effort that was, in fact, merely about Ai's ego.
Ai shot the film, which is now in post-production, with the help of 25 film crews in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, France, Greece, Germany, Lebanon, Jordan and Mexico, among other countries. In a statement, the artist said that “Human Flow is a personal journey, an attempt to understand the conditions of humanity in our days."
"In this time of uncertainty, we need more tolerance, compassion and trust for each other since we all are one," he added, clearly alluding to Donald Trump's presidency and the wider sentiment of anti-immigration and xenophobia that has taken hold around the world. "Otherwise, humanity will face an even bigger crisis.”