ai weiwei mask charity initiative raises over $1.4 million dollars in a month

earlier this year, when the coronavirus was wreaking havoc in china and before it was declared a pandemic, designboom traveled to berlin to meet ai weiwei at his studio.

juliana neira July 2, 2020 2 min

on may 27, 2020, chinese artist and activist, ai weiwei, launched a series of face masks in collaboration with eBay intended to support human rights and relief organizations in response to the COVID-19 health pandemic. the designs, which included a middle finger, sunflower seeds and mythical creatures, were sold for $50 for single works, $300 for series of four works, and $1500 for a collection set of twenty. running for a whole month, ai weiwei announced on instagram that the initiative sold 22,528 masks and raised a total of $1,432,700 USD. all proceeds from the sales will go to human rights watch, refugees international, and médecins sans frontières/doctors without borders.

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images © designboom unless otherwise noted

ai weiwei’s masks were hand-printed with iconic images of the artist’s life-long campaign for free speech and individual rights. as one of china’s most celebrated contemporary artists and a leading dissident, weiwei continues to comment and react to reality and current events. ‘I try to relate my works to everyday life, to ordinary things, to the familiar. at the same time, I add some twists to make us question our rationality.’

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image courtesy of eBay

earlier this year in february, when the coronavirus was wreaking havoc in china and before it was declared a pandemic, designboom traveled to berlin to meet ai weiwei at his studio. at the time, the artist was presenting a DIY sculpture with HORNBACH made of safety jackets zipped the other way. ‘art belongs to everybody,’ he said. ‘everybody can be an artist or has the opportunity or ability to make art. and while art may not necessarily make the world a better place, it has the power to make us better people.’

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during the visit, designboom toured and photographed the studio, and later sat down with ai weiwei and discussed the evolution of his art, why he chooses certain projects over others and of course about the coronavirus. on the latter, he made clear how the world needs to understand how powerful china is and how this pandemic has exposed the various failures of governments around the world. watch the video above to learn more about the artist and continue scrolling to get a glimpse into his berlin studio.

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