3. Remembering – Ai Weiwei, 2009
In 2009, Ai Weiwei created a large installation, made out of 9000 children’s backpacks. Displayed on the facade of the Haus der Kunst in Munich, Germany, each backpack represented a life lost in the earthquake that took place in the Chinese province of Sichuan in 2008. The artist and activist campaigned endlessly to bring justice to the victims of the earthquake in Sichuan that crushed so many children in the shoddily constructed “tofu skin” schools, Ai Weiwei created the installation it spelled, “She lived happily for seven years in this world,” and it was devastating both emotionally – and politically.