Walker Art Center Honors Silenced Voices with Public Sit-In by Trent Gilliss, senior editor This week the Walker Art Center organized a silent demonstration outside its doors. Inspired by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei’s 2007 installation “Fairytale: 1001 Qing Dynasty Wooden Chairs” and commemorating what would have been his 100th day of detention this week, the Minneapolis-based cultural institution invited the public to bring a chair of one’s own to their Hennepin Avenue terrace to acknowledge the many artists around the world “who work under oppressive conditions where artistic freedom is compromised.” After people from Ai Weiwei’s studio heard about the effort, they sent a desk chair from his Beijing studio, which was placed among the other chairs. Guess which one it is. More photos of the turnout can be seen on the Walker’s Facebook page. All photos courtesy of the Walker Art Center.
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Walker Art Center Honors Silenced Voices with Public Sit-In

by Trent Gilliss, senior editor

This week the Walker Art Center organized a silent demonstration outside its doors. Inspired by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei’s 2007 installation “Fairytale: 1001 Qing Dynasty Wooden Chairs” and commemorating what would have been his 100th day of detention this week, the Minneapolis-based cultural institution invited the public to bring a chair of one’s own to their Hennepin Avenue terrace to acknowledge the many artists around the world “who work under oppressive conditions where artistic freedom is compromised.”

After people from Ai Weiwei’s studio heard about the effort, they sent a desk chair from his Beijing studio, which was placed among the other chairs. Guess which one it is.

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More photos of the turnout can be seen on the Walker’s Facebook page.

All photos courtesy of the Walker Art Center.