Building on its history of activating Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park with dynamic, large-scale interventions, Four Freedoms Park Conservancy is launching Art X Freedom, a new public art commissioning program that will invite artists to create site-specific installations that interrogate issues of social justice and freedom.
Located on the southernmost tip of Roosevelt Island across the river from the United Nations, FDR Four Freedoms State Park was designed by the iconic modernist architect Louis Kahn to commemorate the president and the fundamental human freedoms he championed: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. Art X Freedom will extend FDR’s legacy by transforming the memorial and park into a dynamic, forward-looking catalyst for artistic expression, community building, and social change. The Art X Freedom initiative is co-chaired by Four Freedoms Park Conservancy board member Allison Binns and longtime arts patron and social justice philanthropist Agnes Gund.
Launching on September 10, 2025, concurrent with the 80th Session of the UN General Assembly and the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, the inaugural Art X Freedom commission will be a monumental new public art installation by artist and activist Ai Weiwei. Created in direct dialogue with the park’s design and location, Weiwei’s work comprises a monumental open sanctuary and structure draped in a camouflage netting, inviting the public to consider questions of vulnerability and protection, truth and concealment, and the reverberating impacts of violent human conflicts around the world. The artist invites the public to integrate their own statements on freedom into the fabric of the work, adding a participatory and collective element to the evolving public installation. Camouflage by Ai Weiwei will remain on view at the park through December 1, 2025.
“Artists have paved the way in activism and advocacy throughout history. Art X Freedom amplifies this work by inviting contemporary artists to re-envision FDR’s freedoms for future generations by realizing major new public artworks,” said Howard Axel, CEO of Four Freedoms Park Conservancy. “It is an honor to be collaborating with Ai Weiwei to launch this initiative, which marks the first of its kind to activate and transform a presidential memorial and state park.”
Art X Freedom Co-Chair Agnes Gund underscored the urgency of the initiative, stating, "Public art is a mirror to our times. Art X Freedom speaks to the urgent need to protect freedom for all, including freedom of speech, expression, and the right to dissent—values that are the bedrock of democracy and justice." Added Allison Binns, Conservancy Board Member and Art X Freedom Co-Chair, “Ai Weiwei is globally renowned for his provocative and thought-provoking body of work and his staunch and unwavering advocacy for human rights. We could not have found a more perfect partner or resonant project to help us introduce Art X Freedom to the world and inspire park visitors.”
On view from September 10 through December 1, 2025, Camouflage will activate the entire 3.5-acre FDR Four Freedoms State Park. At the Park’s end point, an open architectural structure will rise high above the Park’s granite walls, draped with camouflage netting, creating a shelter and sanctuary over the bust of FDR and his engraved Four Freedoms. The granite embankments running alongside the site will also be covered with the same netting, creating a dynamic interplay of light and context as the sunlight, water, and the presence of the United Nations across the East River interact across the material’s surface.
The camouflage immediately evokes associations with war and nationalism, as well as its multiple functions as disguise, concealment, protection, and deception. Visitors will notice that the pattern has been reinterpreted from its traditional abstract designs to incorporate images of animals. The imagery at once draws upon the history of Roosevelt Island, which has long maintained a sanctuary for wildlife and abandoned pets, the Wildlife Freedom Foundation, and speaks to the reverberating impacts of human conflict. Adorning the top of the sanctuary is a traditional Ukrainian proverb on the dual nature of war, which causes total ruin for some and profit for others: “For some people, war is war, for others, war is the dear mother.” Visitors can participate and contribute to the work by writing reflections on freedom on ribbons and attaching them to the netting, transforming the installation into a collective act of reflection and reckoning.
Main Image: A rendering of the camouflage structure set over metal, by Ai Weiwei, set to debut in September. Credit Ai Weiwei
Anna Melnykova, "Palace of Labor (palats praci), architector I. Pretro, 1916", shot with analog Canon camera, 35 mm Fuji film in March 2022.
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