Ai Weiwei with a wheelbarrow: The Chinese artist creates a site-specific work for L'Aquila

L’Aquila is home to a new work by Ai Weiwei, created by the Chinese artist specifically for the capital of Abruzzo. It is titled Figure and Wheelbarrow for L’Aquila and was unveiled yesterday as part of the initiatives for L’Aquila, Italian Capital of Culture 2026. The project is curated by Giacinto di Pietrantonio and is promoted and supported by the Carispaq Foundation, the Terzo Pilastro Internazionale Foundation, the Regional Council of Abruzzo, the City of L’Aquila, the L’Aquila Capital of Culture 2026 Coordinating Committee, and ANCE L’Aquila, with support from Galleria Continua and the MU6 Association.

The project stems from the artist’s direct engagement with the city and its recent history. In July 2025, during a visit to L’Aquila, Ai Weiwei walked through the historic center, pausing to observe the monuments and the numerous construction sites still involved in the reconstruction process. That experience sparked the idea of transforming one of the most common objects found on construction sites—the wheelbarrow—into a symbol of the city. In the sculpture, the construction tool becomes a metaphor for a broader process: it represents daily labor, the effort required to rebuild, and the toil involved—but also the ability to look toward the future and start anew. For Ai Weiwei, this choice also takes on an autobiographical dimension. The wheelbarrow evokes memories of his childhood and his relationship with his father, Ai Qing, a Chinese poet who wrote a poem titled Wheelbarrow.