The exhibition of works by the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei presented at the Kunstsammlung in 2019 visualized the basic principle of his artistic practice: “Everything is art. Everything is politics.” Numerous works—including the expansive installation Laundromat (2016) comprised of thousands of articles of clothing left behind in refugee camps—address themes such as displacement, flight, and migration: an issue of dramatic topicality that runs like a thread throughout human history.

Such themes are always accompanied by war, destruction, perilous journeys, and quartering in camps. For Stacked Porcelain Vases as a Pillar, Ai Weiwei translated such traumatic experiences into images “narrated” in the traditional aesthetic of Chinese porcelain painting on the voluminous bellies of six vases stacked on top of each other; an uncompromising inventory of the misery of human migration in the guise of precious, decorated, fragile porcelain vessels.

The work acquired by the Freunde der Kunstsammlung in 2019 complements the collection of works by Ai Weiwei which the Kunstsammlung was able to purchase or—like the work Laundromat—received as a gift from the artist.