Ai’s latest intervention: re-creating the tragic plight of Alan Kurdi

The world’s most prominent artist-activist, Ai Weiwei, has once again drawn attention to the plight of refugees fleeing the Middle East, only two days after 39 migrants drowned trying to cross the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece. Last week, Ai lay on a beach in Lesbos, bringing to mind the drowned infant Alan Kurdi who was washed up on the shore near the Turkish town of Bodrum last September. The headline-hitting image of the Chinese artist, shown recently at the India Art Fair in New Delhi, is due to be published in the latest edition of India Today magazine. Rohit Chawla, who took the photograph, told The Washington Post: “I am sure it wasn’t very comfortable to lie down on the pebbles like that. But the soft evening light fell on his face when he lay down.” Ai is documenting the arrival of refugees on Lesbos on his Instagram and Facebook pages, prompting both praise (and a fair amount of vitriol).