NYC opens the exhibition of the detained Chinese artist

 The New York artistic community and Mayor Michael Bloomberg honoured detained artist Chinese Ai Weiwei Wednesday, unveiling his bronze giant sculpture installation even as he remains imprisoned in her native country in a recent crackdown on dissent.

"The artists risk everything to create", Bloomberg said, standing before the heads of animals from Pulitzer fountain Manhattan 12. "But artists such as Ai Weiwei, who come from places that do step value and protect freedom of expression, yet more than one risk."

The mayor said IA willingness to take risks to his courage, but the indomitable desire for freedom that is within every human being also spoken. ?

Hundreds of lawyers, activists and other intellectuals in China have disappeared or been questioned or detained by the authorities in recent weeks. IA was arrested April 3. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China that he was under investigation for economic crimes. Sister of said that he is punished for talking about the Communist leadership and social problems.

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton last month called for his release. A call to the Chinese Consulate seeking comment Wednesday was not immediately returned.

In New York, installing the first major public sculpture of AI, called "The circle of the heads of the animals/Zodiac," presented each of the Chinese zodiac animals - many of them with fun expressions. Each animal head weighs about 800 pounds, about 3-by-4 feet and is located at the top of a narrow column of bronze.

Given that the outspoken artist could not attend the opening, a dozen members of the artistic community of city rather read some of his previous remarks. The artist Julian Schnabel, poet Yusef Komunyakaa and choreographer Bill t. Jones were among them.

"Without freedom of expression, there is no modern world, just a barbarian," said in a citation read by the curator of Museum Guggenheim Alexandra Munroe.

I attended Parsons School of Design in New York and lived in the city for more than a decade. He said that the zodiac room is an ideal solution for New York because of the diversity of the city and call for works of art for children and adults.

New York was the first stop on a tour of the six-city of illustration. The exhibit will be implemented at the southeast corner of Central Park until July 15. After that, it will be presented in London, Los Angeles, Houston, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.