A steel sculpture depicts Chinese artist Ai Weiwei pushing a construction wheelbarrow. It is 'Figure and wheelbarrow for L'Aquila', unveiled this afternoon in front of Palazzo dell'Emiciclo in the Abruzzo regional capital.
Ai Weiwei entrusted his words for the occasion to a video message. Nearly three metres tall and 3.4 metres long, the work was created for the city, curated by Giacinto Di Pietrantonio, in the year of the Italian Capital of Culture.
The project continues the relationship with the artist, whose work was the subject of the recent retrospective 'Aftershock' at Maxxi L'Aquila.
The idea for the sculpture arose from a site visit in July 2025, observing the construction sites of L'Aquila. The wheelbarrow also evokes his childhood and his father Ai Qing, who wrote a poem bearing this title.
"My visit to L'Aquila was fundamental in helping me understand how similar the experience my country went through in 2008 was to what the city faced after the 2009 earthquake," the artist said in a video greeting that referenced the Sichuan earthquake.
In L'Aquila's history, moreover, the wheelbarrow also recalls the civic mobilisation of 2010, when the so-called "wheelbarrow people" entered the historic centre to symbolically remove rubble and protest against the stalled reconstruction.
Speakers at the inauguration included Fabrizio Marinelli, president of the Fondazione Carispaq; curator Di Pietrantonio; mayor Pierluigi Biondi; Lorenzo Sospiri, president of the Regional Council; regional Culture councillor Roberto Santangelo; Alessandra Taccone, president of the Fondazione Terzo Pilastro Internazionale; Pierluigi Frezza representing Ance L'Aquila; and Fiorella Luciani, president of the Coordination Committee for L'Aquila Capital of Culture 2026. The project is supported by the two Foundations, the Regional Council, the Municipality, the Coordination Committee and Ance L'Aquila, with the support of Galleria Continua and the MU6 Association.
