Ai Weiwei, the Chinese artist, arrived at Zurich Airport on a Monday evening, ready to make a statement. Instead of a delegation of high-culture enthusiasts, he was met by a border control officer with a dry “Papers, please.” And so the drama unfolded.
Ai Weiwei is a master of conceptual art, but it seems he underestimated the performance of “No Visa to Zurich.” As any tourist from China would know, without a Schengen visa, nothing would work here. But Ai Weiwei would not be Ai Weiwei if he didn’t turn this into an act of censorship and freedom denial.
In reality, the truth is much more prosaic: no visa, no entry, period. It’s astonishing that a flight from London even allowed him on board without the necessary documents. His attempt to perceive a political crackdown in Switzerland is almost as surprising as the fact that a Swiss bureaucracy still functions like a clockwork.
However, Ai Weiwei is a clever provocateur and he would not let the situation pass without transforming it into a work of art. The airport thus became an impromptu atelier, with a bank serving as a bed and a smartphone as a canvas. With his usual skill, the artist turned his forced layover into a social media-worthy protest act.
A video here, a desperate post there and soon the news spread through social media: Ai Weiwei was arrested in Switzerland!
The Zurich police remained unimpressed, seeing only a normal case of “no entry without a visa” – a situation that recently also befell Air India employees. Ai Weiwei was free to move around the transit area, could have even enjoyed a Gipfeli or cleared out the duty-free shop. But that wouldn’t have made a good story.
Now, the return journey to London awaits. Whether he will obtain a visa or plan the next art project remains to be seen. Perhaps someone should consider buying him a ticket to Germany – he was a state guest there once and was allowed to stay. Or he might apply for a Schengen visa like everyone else. But that would be almost too mundane for a world-renowned artist.