Thousands of children’s backpacks covered the museum facade, spelling a sentence from a grieving mother after the Sichuan earthquake: “She lived happily for seven years in this world.” The color was bright. The subject was unbearable. Ai made public memory impossible to ignore.
Installation using backpacks arranged across architecture as text and image.
Backpacks stand for children killed when poorly built schools collapsed. The sentence restores one child’s life against official abstraction.
Ai investigated student deaths after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, challenging government secrecy around construction failures.
“Everything is art. Everything is politics.”
The work became a major example of art as public mourning and political accountability.
What did this stir in you?