Ai Weiwei shows Lego-portraits in Mexico, missing students

In Mexico, a project of the artist Ai Weiwei makes for vortex. From LEGO bricks, he has built portraits of 43 missing students. The government wanted to cover up the truth, he says.

By Anne-Katrin Mellmann, ARD-Studio, Mexico

Ai Weiwei puts his Finger in the wound of Mexico: Huge, colorful, made of LEGO bricks built, the faces of four years ago disappeared students from Ayotzinapa look down into a hall of the Museum of contemporary art. Overwhelm you with their presence.

memories restore, "restablecer memorias" is the title of the exhibition in Mexico city, and the intention of the Chinese artist. The monstrous crimes of 2014 is not elucidated until today.

It is only one of many: 40,000 people have disappeared in Mexico. To you he wanted to remember, so Ai Weiwei at the opening of the exhibition: "thousands of people who will never be mentioned. They are simply gone." The Mexican government blame it on the drug cartels, and try everything to downplay it.

"it's all about the Dignity and the lives of people. As citizens, artists, or politicians, we ask the very simple question: What really happened? The truth tells us!"

Controversial findings of the investigation by the authorities

in Mexico, authorities had already presented a few months after the Disappearance of the student teachers in a supposedly "historical truth". The 43 students, who had hijacked in the town of Iguala buses to drive to a Demonstration in the capital, had been kidnapped from corrupt police officers and drug gangs passed.

"I feel very deeply for these parents". Ai Weiwei in front of the Lego portraits of the disappeared students.

This would have killed the young men, and in a landfill, burned, and claimed the attorney General. A little later, the independent international experts, disproved.

in 2016, met Ai Weiwei with parents of the Disappeared, the call continuously for enlightenment. He had met people who want to believe their sons are still alive. "I have very many feelings, because I-Year-old son of someone, and because I have a ten-year-old son," said the 61 -. "I would be crazy if they took away him from me. I would be a Terrorist if he was gone. I feel very deeply with these parents."

"memory is like a Puzzle"

feelings to be certain, Ai Weiwei says. Non-political art, he could not imagine. He is currently working on a Film about the 43 students - even more painful reminder, not just for Mexico.

governments tried to cover up the truth, Weiwei believes Ai. German weapons ended up in the hands of Mexican Criminals. And the USA sent the most weapons to Mexico. The theme is very much greater than that of the missing students.

"The drugs throw a lot of money, whom do the farmers care? Many of the parents of the disappeared students are farmers. A large part of the drugs sold in the United States come from their Region. The tragedy that has played, not only affects you, but the global policy. No one can say: this is not our Problem."

The memory was like a jigsaw Puzzle, says Ai Weiwei. The Million LEGO pieces, the shapes, the Portraits of the 43 students, are now part of a puzzle of his work, which calls for an answer to the question, what is going to happen.

he has Made it to the Museum of Contemporary art belongs to a group of 150 students from the Autonomous University of Mexico, to the. Students of the future, Ai Weiwei. The Disappearance of the 43 was therefore an attack on the future.

Ai Weiwei's Lego Portraits of the Disappeared
Anne-Katrin Mellmann, ARD Mexico City
12.04.2019 08:10 PM

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