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Even in his New York period (1983–1993), Ai Weiwei took photographs, but especially since his return to Beijing, he has tirelessly documented everyday realities of the urban environment and society in China, and discussed them in blogs and twitters. The photographs of the radical changes to the urban built fabric, the search for earthquake victims, and the destruction of his Shanghai studio are presented along with art-photographic projects, the documenta Fairytale project, the countless blog and mobile-phone photographs. The exhibition is accompanied by an extensive book of material and archives.
Ai Weiwei is a generalistic, conceptual, socio-critical artist, dedicated to friction with and the design of realities. As an architect, conceptual artist, sculptor, photographer, blogger, Twitterer and interview artist and political activist, he is a seismograph for current themes and social problems: a great multiplicator and communicator, who leads a life for art and art as life.
Ai Weiwei deliberately tackles social relationships in China and the world—by means of photographic documentation of the architectural demolitions in Beijing in the name of progress, with provocative-looking measurements of the world, his personal determinations of location in Study of Perspective (radical editing of the past, splitting up and reassembling found bits of furniture) in order to create possibilities for the present and future, and with his 10,000s of blogs, blog and mobile-phone photographs, along with many other artistic opinions). This first major exhibition and book project of his photography and video works aims to throw light on this diversity and multifaced, interlaced work by Ai Weiwei and thematise it with hundreds of his photographs, blogs and explanatory essays.
The artist as a network, firm, activist, political voice, social vessel or agent provocateur. At all times, every society in this world, in the past, present and future, needs singular, outstanding figures such as Ai Weiwei in order to remain alert and be shaken into wakefulness, to recognise its own rigidity and to avoid its own tunnel vision. We are delighted that this great thinker, designer and warrior was released from arrest on 22nd June 2011. It is to be hoped that Ai Weiwei will soon leave behind the restrictions imposed on him and can come forward again as a powerful public voice.
Catalogue
Steidl of Göttingen is publishing an English–German catalogue for the exhibition, which was developed in cooperation with the artist: Ai Weiwei Interlacing, ed. Urs Stahel/Daniela Janser, 496 pp, c. 600 illustrations, with contributions by Carol Yinghua Lu, Daniela Lanser, Urs Stahel and Philip Tinari. Price €39.
