Weiwei imitates photo of Syrian toddler on Turkish beach

NEW DELHI – The Associated Press

AP Photo

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has recreated the famous image of a 3-year-old Syrian child who drowned in Turkey last year by staging a photo of himself lying face down on a beach in Greece.

The photograph last year of the child lying on the Bodrum coast in the western province of Muğla triggered international outrage, as people saw the helpless toddler as the devastating human face of the refugee crisis in Europe.

The photo was picked as one of TIME magazine’s top 100 photos of 2015.

Weiwei posed for the picture on a pebbly beach on Lesbos Island last week for one of India’s largest English-language news magazines, India Today.

Weiwei has set up a studio on Lesbos, the main entry point for refugees traveling to Europe.

His photograph was recently displayed at an art fair in New Delhi and many visitors took pictures of it.