Ai Weiwei Is Documenting the Amazon Fires for a New Project

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei announced a new documentary at Art Basel Miami Beach, where he has several pieces on display, the Art Newspaper reports. With one film already in the works on animals and the environment, Ai sent a camera team to the Brazilian states of Rondônia, Mato Grosso, and Amazonas to capture footage of the ongoing fires in the Amazon Rainforest, along with another team which went to Pará to shoot cattle farms. This footage will be used for a separate documentary on the fires, as well as in next year's production of Turandot at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, which Ai is directing. Agribusiness and the deforestation of the Amazon are inextricably linked issues. Ai said in his announcement: "We can clearly see that the fires are a part of a wide-ranging and premeditated plan to cause deforestation to increase land use for agriculture and cattle farming."