In sequence of the detainment of the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei at the Beining airport while en route to Hong Kong on April 3, and confiscation of his papers and computers from his studio compound, the Guggenheim has launched an online petition for Ai Weiwei's freedom and to express the international arts community concern towards China's reluctance to live up to its promise to nurture creativity and independent thought.
Museums and cultural institutions around the world, including the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD); Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate, London; Gwangju Biennale, Korea; and the Musée national d'art moderne/Centre de création industrielle, Paris, have joined this initiative and launched the online petition through their Web sites, Twitter, and Facebook.
The detention of Ai is inconsistent with the Chinese government pledged, through the Ministry of Culture, to promote all artistic disciplines and to advance artistic ideas, as well as with China's commitment to the guarantee of fundamental freedoms.
Ai Weiwei, the son of one of the country’s most beloved poets, is an internationally acclaimed artist, a documentary filmmaker and an architect who helped design the Olympic stadium in Beijing known as the Bird’s Nest.
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