Detention of Ai Weiwei: “Clearly a legal violation”
Invitation to Berlin: Lehmann and Ai Weiwei in Beijing (Photo: Goethe-Institut)
5 April 2011
Klaus-Dieter Lehmann, President of the Goethe-Institut, expressed his dismay at the detention of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei in Beijing and forcefully demanded his immediate release. He had met with the artist only two days before the police operation.
Lehmann had just travelled to Beijing as part of the delegation of German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle for the opening of the exhibition Art of the Enlightenment. He visited Ai Weiwei there.
“I just spoke with Ai Weiwei in his Beijing studio on Friday, 1 April. I visited him because he had not come to the Art of the Enlightenment exhibition by the three museums in Berlin, Dresden and Munich.” The president also took the opportunity to invite the artist to the 60th anniversary celebration of the institute this summer in Berlin. “Ai Weiwei has been a friend of the Goethe-Institut for many years.”
Lehmann finds the arrest of the 53-year old incomprehensible. “This arbitrary detention and refusal to cite reasons for it or information about his present whereabouts are also clearly a violation of Chinese law.”
Klaus-Dieter Lehmann also pointed out that China is preparing a year of culture in Germany for 2012. In his opinion, detention or conviction of Ai Weiwei would have disastrous consequences for such an event in Germany.
The artist, who is critical of the Chinese government, was conveyed from the airport in Beijing on Sunday morning, from where he planned to fly to Hong Kong. Since then, there has been no trace of him. Ai Weiwei’s studio in Beijing was searched and a number of his staff were interrogated. Human rights organizations and politicians such as Westerwelle have also demanded the release of the artist.
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