# The Ai Weiwei encounter in Berlin

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "The Ai Weiwei encounter in Berlin," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-ai-weiwei-encounter-in-berlin/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*John Kiriakou met the artist Ai Weiwei by pure chance on a Berlin street while dragging a suitcase to the airport after a board meeting — an encounter that led to a tour of Ai Weiwei's studio and a signed iPhone case bearing the Lego portrait the artist had made of him for an exhibition at Alcatraz.*

- **Where:** A street in Berlin
- **Occasion:** First board meeting of the Courage Foundation
- **Gift:** Signed iPhone case with his Lego portrait, and a show catalogue
- **Told to:** Peter B. Collins, 19 May 2017

Kiriakou sits on the board of the Courage Foundation, a Berlin-based whistleblower protection group. Its first-ever board meeting took him to a part of Berlin he had never been to before, and he had to rush from the meeting straight to the airport, so he had his luggage with him.[1]

## The street

Pulling his suitcase through the unfamiliar neighbourhood, he passed a Chinese man walking towards him. The man said *"John Kiriakou."* Kiriakou looked at him, and the man said, very softly, *"I am Ai Weiwei."* Kiriakou's reply was *"oh my gosh, what a small world."*[1]

The two had been in touch previously by Skype, at a time when Ai Weiwei was under house arrest in China, but had never met. They stood on the street and talked. Kiriakou thanked him profusely for having made his portrait out of Lego for the show at Alcatraz. Ai Weiwei invited him back to his studio, and Kiriakou left for the airport an hour early in order to go, dragging the suitcase roughly another mile.[2]

By Kiriakou's account the meeting was entirely accidental: the artist was simply out for a random stroll.[2]

## The studio

Ai Weiwei gave him a tour. He had made iPhone cases carrying each of the portraits from the exhibition, and he gave Kiriakou the case with his own Lego portrait on it and autographed it, along with one of the catalogues from the show.[3] Kiriakou described it as an incredible experience and said he was honoured and humbled finally to meet him.[3]

The portrait itself belonged to a larger work: a tableau laid out in a warehouse space at Alcatraz, made of Lego, carrying line drawings of more than a hundred political prisoners then incarcerated worldwide. Kiriakou was among them, and visitors who had seen the exhibit were invited afterwards to sign a custom postcard addressed to one of the prisoners — a mechanism that reached him directly.[4]

## See also

- [The Ai Weiwei Lego portrait](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-ai-weiwei-lego-portrait)
- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)
- [The Alcatraz Walkthrough](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-alcatraz-walkthrough)

## Sources

1. In-Depth Interview - Former CIA Officer John Kiriakou Talks About His Prison Experience (2017-05-19), at 08:06. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auddfe68a43b&t=486s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-05-19-peter-b-collins-show-in-depth-interview-former-cia-officer-john-ki/
2. In-Depth Interview - Former CIA Officer John Kiriakou Talks About His Prison Experience (2017-05-19), at 08:40. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auddfe68a43b&t=520s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-05-19-peter-b-collins-show-in-depth-interview-former-cia-officer-john-ki/
3. In-Depth Interview - Former CIA Officer John Kiriakou Talks About His Prison Experience (2017-05-19), at 09:11. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auddfe68a43b&t=551s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-05-19-peter-b-collins-show-in-depth-interview-former-cia-officer-john-ki/
4. In-Depth Interview - Former CIA Officer John Kiriakou Talks About His Prison Experience (2017-05-19), at 07:36. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auddfe68a43b&t=456s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-05-19-peter-b-collins-show-in-depth-interview-former-cia-officer-john-ki/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-ai-weiwei-encounter-in-berlin/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt