Last month, Ai Weiwei placed a bulk order of Legos in preparation for his upcoming exhibition in Australia. His new project requires a large amount of the colorful bricks—but the toy company has refused to fulfill his request.
The artist was outraged with the response from Lego, so he shared it on Instagram. "'We regret to inform you that it is against our corporate policy to indicate our approval of any unaffiliated activities outside the LEGO licensing program...Therefore I am very sorry to let you know that we are not in a position to support the exhibition Andy Warhol | Ai Weiwei by supplying the bulk order.' Ai Weiwei Studio was informed by NGV about Lego's rejection of the bulk order."
The company's response caused an Internet backlash from supporters of Weiwei's work. He has referred to his rejection as an act of censorship and discrimination against his political project that revolves around free speech.
Now, people from around the world are offering to donate their own Legos. The response has been so large, that he has set up collection points in various cities.
"It appears that we will now actually get enough Lego bricks together in order to be able to conduct this project as originally planned," he said at a new conference, Mashable reports. The artist has used the bricks for many of his works before.
Weiwei will share the donation locations on his social media accounts.
