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The installation features large portraits of
the students made from a million multi-colored Legos that hover
above a cavernous exhibit space, images that have become seared
into the Mexican conscience by grieving family members who often
hoist posters with the same images at protests demanding answers
for their sons' disappearance.
Entitled "Reestablishing Memories," the work also features a
timeline of the 2014 abduction of the trainee-teachers from the
all-boys Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers College in southern Mexico
and the government's widely disparaged investigation into the
case.
"Why do we have to do it? Because every crime creates a vacuum
and it poisons society," Ai told reporters at a news conference
on Thursday.
Known for his criticism of Communist-run China's stifling of
free expression, Ai said his latest project was partially
inspired by the Chinese government's refusal to explain its
errors following a massive 2008 earthquake in Sichuan in which
thousands of students died in government-built schools.
"It reminded me of the Mexicans who lost their children," he
said, explaining how his own search for answers following the
tragedy was stymied.
An initial Mexican government investigation found that the
Ayotzinapa students were abducted by corrupt police who handed
them over to a local drug gang. The gang then killed them for
reasons that remain unclear and burnt their bodies in a trash
dump, discarding the ashes into a nearby river, it concluded.
But the account was tainted by allegations of torture and the
possible involvement of soldiers.
To date, the remains of just one student have been identified.
Ai, who was detained by the Chinese government in 2011 and
currently lives in Berlin, supervised the creation of the
oversized Lego portraits by students from Mexico's National
Autonomous University (UNAM).
Last year, Ai accused Lego of refusing to directly sell its
interlocking plastic toy bricks to him.
The Danish company said its policy was designed to keep it out
of politics, but later reversed its stand in the face of a
public backlash.
"Reestablishing Memories," which is paired with Ai's earlier
"Wang Family Ancestral Hall" installation, opens on Saturday on
the UNAM campus in Mexico City, and will be on display through
October.
(Reporting by Alberto Fajardo; Writing by David Alire Garcia;
Editing by Sandra Maler)
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