The Empty Chair

Year: 2011
Material: steel, industrial clay

By invitation of Amnesty International, and in honor of the Chinese Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, Amnesty International invited Maarten Baas to design a piece to support their campaign against the increased suppression of writers, journalists, artists and activists.

In 2010 Liu Xiaobo was awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize for his peaceful battle for fundamental human rights. Liu Xiaobo could not accept the prize in person, because he was in jail serving a 11 year imprisonment for ‘undermining of the state’.

Therefore, Baas’s The Empty Chair of Liu Xiaobo became a symbol for repression.