Jim Wilson/The New York Times  The operating room of the prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. Ai Weiweiâs artworks will be in the prison and an adjacent laundry building.  The Chinese artist and political dissident Ai Weiwei was one of the most famous prisoners in recent history. Now heâs taking on one of the most infamous prisons of all time, using Alcatraz as the inspiration and site for a series of new artworks to debut next September.  Itâs an unusual chapter for Alcatraz, the first time the former penitentiary is opening its extra-strength, tool-proof steel doors for a major contemporary artist, according to the National Park Service. It also promises to be a high-profile project for Mr. Ai, who said by phone from Beijing that he has never visited Alcatraz but is interested in exploring conditions in which individuals are stripped of basic human rights: âThe idea of loss of freedom as a punishment raises philosophical questions.â  âI have too many friends today who are still in jail,â he added. âThe fact that people who are fighting for freedom have lost their freedom being incarcerated is more than ironic.â  Mr. Ai himself was detained for 81 days in 2011 on tax evasion charges, following his lengthy investigation into the Chinese government for shoddy construction that contributed to the deaths of thousands of schoolchildren in their classrooms during the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Supporters of Mr. Ai said the tax inquiry was a pretext to silence one of the most outspoken critics of Chinaâs government. The 56-year-old artist remains subject to travel restrictions. (Do not, for example, expect him at the grand opening of the PÃ©rez Art Museum Miami this week, where his retrospective is the big inaugural show.) âMy passport has been in the hands of police for almost three years now,â he said. âIâve lost my ability to travel.â  For the Alcatraz project, he is working closely with Cheryl Haines, a San Francisco gallery owner who founded the nonprofit foundation For-Site to help realize site-specific public-art projects in the Bay Area.  Besides noting the artâs use of sculpture and sound, Ms. Haines said it was too early to provide specifics on the works. But she did describe some themes that are likely to emerge. âI think itâs a really rich site that allows him to address the most basic human rights, like freedom of expression and its importance in building a culture,â she said. âWeâre also hoping to address parallels between forms of imprisonment and governments that use restrictions in communications to control people.â  Mr. Ai said that he is ânot thinking about work that will directly connect to my own detention,â as he was recently for a set of six dioramas shown in a church in Venice. (Those sculptural tableaus recreated painfully cramped scenes from his own detainment, like his being interrogated or showering, all under the watch of two guards.)  The plan is to install some artworks in the building that served as a maximum-security penitentiary from 1934 to 1963. Other works are intended for an adjacent laundry building, where inmates like Al Capone were once put to work.  Ms. Haines said she has long been interested in the multilayered history of Alcatraz â as federal prison, a military prison before that, and later as a site of American Indian protests. She said she first mentioned the place to Mr. Ai during a visit two years ago to his studio on the outskirts of Beijing.  âHe was talking about how interested he was in reaching a broad audience, beyond the art world,â she said by telephone. âIt was just four months after his release from incarceration, and this thought popped into my mind: âWhat if I brought you a prison?âÂ â  After the artist expressed interest, Ms. Haines worked to gain support from the National Park Service, which oversees the island, and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, which provides funding and programming for it.  Frank Dean, a National Park Service superintendent for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, said there was serious interest in Mr. Aiâs work from the start but also practical issues his group had to review before issuing approval. The island, which measures only 22 acres, receives 1.5 million visitors annually â up to 5,000 daily during peak season.
The artist Ai Weiwei will have a show on the grounds of the former prison, starting next September.