How did Ai Weiwei’s Remembering installation honor children killed in the Sichuan earthquake?

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Chinese activist and artist Ai Weiwei in 2019, facing the camera and wearing a black zip-up jacket. — Ai Weiwei Ai Weiwei, 2019.

Ai Weiwei’s 2009 installation Remembering honored the children who died in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake by using 9,000 colorful backpacks to create a massive display on a wall in Munich.1

These backpacks were arranged to spell out a quote in Chinese from the mother of a victim, which served as a poignant tribute to the thousands of children who perished when poorly constructed public schools collapsed during the disaster. Through this work, Ai highlighted the human cost of the tragedy and his "citizen investigation" into the government's failure to release details regarding the fatalities.1