Ai Weiwei curates art from the penal system

Each year, the Koestler Award encourages people from the British prison system to approach art. It aims to help inmates make positive changes in their lives. Now the award is celebrating its 60th anniversary. None other than Ai Weiwei  has taken this as an opportunity to curate the accompanying exhibition.

His intention: To depict the subject in its entirety. Together, the artworks should tell the story of how people react to extreme circumstances. Ai Weiwei uses an analogy to make the concept comprehensible: He wants to show the whole forest, not just a branch that comes from it. He was simply inspired by the immense number of works that the Koestler Arts Building is currently exhibiting: 6,500 works were submitted by prison inmates for this year's award - the title of the accompanying exhibition Freedom acts almost like a mouthpiece to the »outside world«. Ai Weiwei himself was imprisoned in China in 2011 for political reasons until he was released on bail under strict conditions after two and a half months in prison. It was not until 2015 that he received his passport back and was able to leave the country.

For the preparations, Ai Weiwei visited HM Prison Wormwood Scrubs, a local men's prison nicknamed The Scrubs. It is located right next to the Koestler Arts Centre. Freedom can be seen from October 27 to December 18 at the Royal Festival Hall on Level 1 of the Southbank Centre in London.