Ai Weiwei Staged an Impromptu Protest at Munich’s Haus der Kunst to Show Solidarity With Workers Facing Layoffs

The Chinese artist and activist
Ai Weiwei has taken a stand in solidarity with Haus der Kunst’s
staff, who are currently facing layoffs as the Munich institution
looks at an internal restructuring due to ongoing financial
woes.

The 62-year-old artist, who has
been based in Germany for years since his exile from China (though
he recently announced plans
to move to the UK), visited the museum over the weekend and staged
an impromptu action, posing at the entrance to the galleries and
appearing to check tickets for the Markus Lüpertz show as visitors
entered. Ai also posted a more controversial photo a day later,
showing him in a deep conversation with Haus der Kunst’s managing
director, Bernhard Spies.

Spies, who was enlisted to head the museum after celebrated
curator Okwui Enzewor stepped down, was expected to turn the tide
on the Haus der Kunst’s finances issues. He cancelled exhibitions
by artists Joan Jonas and Adrian Piper that were in the works,
before introducing a show by the established German painter Markus
Lüpertz.

“The management is sticking to
its promise to make the restructuring process as socially
acceptable as possible, while maintaining as many jobs as possible
and without any loss of income,” said the Haus der Kunst in an
official statement shared by the German newswire DPA. The
cash-strapped institution had previously announced that it was
considering laying off 48 staff members, about two-thirds of its
part-time workers, as a part of a financial restructuring. Jobs cut
would include front-of-house workers, cashiers, and security
guards, many of whom had worked at the museum for up to 20
years.

Ai, who had a solo show at the
museum in 2009, reportedly criticized the museum’s management for
buying expensive works of art “while people with low pay [could] be
dismissed,” according to Deustchlandkulturfunk. 

Some media reports and social
media users initially said that Ai Weiwei was removed from the
museum during the protest, but the artist has denied these
claims. “The fact is no one ever threw me out,” Ai said,
according to The Art Newspaper. “We left after the end of
the protest. NB: I have never been thrown out by anyone and I’m
sure there will be a time to come.”

The post Ai Weiwei Staged an Impromptu Protest at Munich’s
Haus der Kunst to Show Solidarity With Workers Facing Layoffs
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