Growing up amid a brutal civil war in Liberia, Johnson Weree fled by boat to Rotterdam in the Netherlands in 1998, where he still lives today – undocumented and without a permanent home. In the decades since, he’s become a fixture in the streets of the port city, often wearing a rastacap and immersed in his art practice. His works are intricately patterned, colourful portraits sketched from memory, with their striking, unusual style reflecting his self-taught skills and a life caught between cultures.
As the short documentary Weree shows, the art world eventually and improbably began to take note of this outsider artist, with his works featured in magazines, galleries and museums across Europe. Known for his documentaries that chronicle migrants living on the fringes of society in Europe, the UK director Tal Amiran captures Weree’s life and practice with a gentle touch. Interweaving his surreal, haunting artworks, poignant biography and current life, lived largely on the streets, Amiran builds a deeply empathetic portrait of an artist driven by trauma, displacement, hope and a mysterious inner voice.
