This September, renowned artist Ai Weiwei presents a striking new installation art project titled Camouflage, set to transform the landscape of Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park. Opening on September 10th, 2025, the work debuts as part of Art X Freedom, a bold initiative commissioning contemporary artists to explore justice, liberty, and the evolving meaning of public space.
Located at the Four Freedoms State Park, the installation occupies a symbolic position on Roosevelt Island, directly across from the United Nations. The park’s modernist architecture, originally designed by Louis Kahn, becomes the conceptual backdrop for Weiwei’s vision. His monumental structure—cloaked in camouflage netting—blurs the line between shelter and exposure, conflict and refuge. In classic Ai Weiwei installation art style, Camouflage challenges viewers to engage with complex themes: What does it mean to be visible? When is concealment a form of power?
As part of the experience, visitors will be invited to contribute their own reflections on freedom, adding personal texture to an already charged artistic statement. Coinciding with the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and the 80th session of the UN General Assembly, the project reinterprets Roosevelt’s iconic Four Freedoms through the lens of contemporary art and global dialogue.
Camouflage will remain on view at Four Freedoms State Park through December 1st, 2025, offering one of the most significant Ai Weiwei works to date in the U.S. Join us as we sit down with the artist to discuss his creative legacy, his philosophy of destruction as creation, and why this latest Ai Weiwei exhibition may be one of his most urgent yet.
Join us for an interview with Ai Weiwei, where he explores the power of objects, the role of time in artistic legacy, and why creativity is always linked to destruction.
