Laundromat Refugee Camp Exhibition

An unusual exhibition, but one that deserves more than just a wander through, as it if were a shop. Located at New York (USA)'s Deitch Projects, the exhibition is an ongoing engagement to the global refugee crisis. Designed and implemented by Ai WeiWei, the exhibition is a collection of thousands of materials and garments that have been sourced from an informal refugee camp in Idomeni (Greece).

Such a location is perhaps off the usual refugee news radar, but the small village saw up to 15,000 men, women and children that were mostly from Syria, Afghanistan or Iraq at it's peak of Spring 2016. Such a camp saw weeks of living in dire conditions with scarce food and harrowing sanitary conditions. As a consequence of the conditions, Idomeni was eventually shut down and this displaced thousands of refugees living there. In a complete rush to mobilise and flee to safer locations, many of it's former residents left behind clothes, shoes, personal mementos and photographs. By way of collating the lost treasures, Ai Weiwei transported, washed and sorted everything back in New York, and the efforts now serve as a poignant and powerful exhibition. Of high human rights advocacy, SATORI & SCOUT reckon this is simply brilliant.

Available until 23rd December 2016, the exhibition is on show to all to experience and reminisce. With a monumental display of carefully-hung clothes, meticulously-arranged shoes and precisely-folded blankets, and with walls and the floor complete with powerful tweets, photographs and glimpses into life in the informal refugee camp, this will be well worth a visit. Discover more about the artist at AiWeiWei.com.

Photography credit : Genevieve Hanson of Deitch Projects