Ai Weiwei - Never Sorry About Oppression

Ai Weiwei is "not only" a political artist

Ai Weiwei is safe and rightly the most famous political artist, all over the world and especially in our country, in which the Chinese artist would only be too happy to be if his home country would finally grant him freedom of travel.

However, China refuses: While exhibition, which has been running , is already setting up in the Berlin Martin-Gropius building in Berlin, becoming a “artistic public race of the year”, intervening German politicians cannot do that Ai Weiwei from China can travel to Berlin to his own exhibition.

Even more, the Chinese censorship has just struck (April 2014): Shortly before the opening of a group exhibition on the anniversary of the "Chinese Contemporay Art Awards" in Shanghai, it was stated that a work by Ai Weiwei had to be removed from the show. The exhibition organizers had to join if the show should not burst, the name of the Ai Weiwei honored with this award in 2008 was painted over in the chronicle.

The fear of the Chinese rulers of the artist fighting for democracy seems unbroken, Ai Weiwei is still needed for his political engagement (which can be read more in the articles "Ai Weiwei - Art and Ruilance of an indomitable" and "Ai Weiwei - 'The Fake Case'" ).

This support is a matter of course for every democratically minded person - but this does not seem to be as natural, now has to perceive ai Weiwei independently of his political struggle as an artist.

It is so worthwhile to take a closer look at the work - the artist "bursts with creativity", his art is exciting and extraordinary, surprising and entertaining. Let yourself be made curious, with a look at some works of art by Ai Weiwei.

Famous and remarkable art of Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei has had a very comprehensive training in the field of art: he studied at the Beijing Film Academy and at the Art Students League of New York, and the artist also took courses at the Parsons The New School for Design. These were many different influences that - in the sometimes predictable and sometimes non -predictable way - are reflected in Ai Weisweis art.

In 1979, Ai Weiwei and other Chinese freethinkers founded a Chinese artists' group that art according to state guidelines. From 1981 to 1993, Ai Weiwei created performance and conceptual art , Pop Art and Dada in the USA.

Returning to China, he founded the China Art Archives and Warehouse , a space in Beijing for experimental art. Ai Weiwei also created experimental art, delightfully exciting and diverse: sculptures and design, architectural art and conceptual art , paintings and books, films and photographs.

Often with brilliant simplicity: From 2003 to 2005, Ai Weiwei simply filmed overfilled streets in Beijing, impressive images of the absolute fainting of "people in the dirt" and the failure of "blind city builders" .

Often with a lot of irony: in 2006 Ai Weiwei decorated an invaluable, around 7,000-year-old vase from the Neolithic Age with a red Coca-Cola logo ("Coca Cola Vase"), a little later he covers 39 neolithic vases (approx. 2,800 years before our time) with colorful industrial colors ("Colored Vases"). Why should the individual pay attention to the ancient cultural values ​​if they are not estimated by greedy entrepreneurs?

In 2005, Ai Weiwei, together with Serge Spitzer "Ghost Valley Coming Down the Mountain" , designed a spacious and impressive installation of 96 tone vases from the Yuan era (1269 to 1368), which were built in the old workshop in China, for the exhibition "Humanism in China" .

Since 2008, the "Aiflowers - Respect Life, Never Forget" the children who died in the devastating earthquake in Sichuan (Szetschuan) on May 12, 2008. Ai Weiwei invites every compassionate person to contribute a flower picture on the website https://aitlowers.org , the flowers still grow.

In 2008, Ai Weiwei dreamed of a dream city in the Mongolian desert, "Ordos 100 ," in collaboration with the renowned architects Herzog & de Meuron: A place where rich and poor would live together, uniting ecology and economy. However, the dream was soon dashed, as the main investor, a wealthy Chinese, disappeared before construction even began...

But at least the planned 100 villas brought together 100 architects from 27 countries, contrary to the ongoing European debate about whether international architects should be allowed to work in China.

And already ai Weiwei is political again

It is no different, even if Ai Weiwei tries in his own country to work with a new departure. From 2002, Ai Weiwei worked on the draft of the new Beijing nation Stadium for the 2008 Olympics, in order to finally distance itself from this project shortly before the opening.

"Bird's Nest" after the famous Chinese swallow nests soup , after winning the international architecture competition together with AI Weiwei in 2002.

As the swallow nests soup itself, due to the complex preparation, one of the most expensive specialties in Chinese cuisine, also caused the nation stadium that were completely out of relief ...

When the nation stadium opened on April 18, 2008, it had devoured construction costs of around 3.5 billion Yuan (325 million euros, with a huge cost overrun) and was perceived by AI Weiwei as a megalomaniac and inadequate.

Shortly before the opening ceremony of the games, Ai Weiwei therefore waived the participation, here ai Weisweis speech on the topic in German translation (in English to be found in the English at theguardian.com ) , from Thursday, August 7, 2008:

Why I stayed away from the opening ceremony of the Olympics
when I helped to design Beijing's bird nest stadium, I wanted it to represent freedom, not autocracy: China has to change.

This week the world gathers in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics. This is an extraordinary moment that China has dreamed of 100 years. People have longed for this moment because he symbolizes a turning point in China's relationship with the rest of the world.

Under the eyes of the world's population, China should merge into a larger whole, immerse yourself in humanity. The world should suddenly feel smaller and closer. That should mean a lot for our country because we fought to open up after decades of seclusion.

In the past 30 years we tore down barriers, opened doors and windows, were blinded by sunshine and felt the wind of profound change. From the Olympic Games we expected that they would testify to new heights of effort and hope that the speed and strength that China would inspire to increase the pace of reforms, more braver and more in peace with themselves.

In order to achieve this point, China has endured disasters, suffering, humiliation and a darkness that people have hopelessly made.

Almost 60 years after the founding of the People's Republic, we still live under a autocratic government, without general voting rights. We have no free press, although freedom of expression is worth more than life itself. Today is not the time to stay with our problems, but we shouldn't listen to those who want to tell us that these games are not political.

We live in a world where everything is politicized, but some people want to insist that it is different at the Olympic Games. They claim that these two weeks of sport are somehow detached from history and psychology, not combined with theory and morality and on a higher level than the simple person.

They argue that anyone who links the Games to politics has sinister ulterior motives, anti-Chinese motives. But the real reason they dislike political discussions is that every political discussion reminds Chinese citizens who is responsible for China's disengagement from the rest of the world.

Today, China and the world will meet again. The people of China will realize that the planet is smaller today than at any other time in history, that humanity should bid farewell to arrogance and indifference, to ignorance and discrimination, and that we all share the same small piece of land.

It could be a time when we rediscover ourselves in which we share the good in life, in which we look each other in the eyes and take our hands. The colorful festival is not only a time to celebrate, but also for peace and friendship. In order to rediscover our future, we should say goodbye to our past.

We have to say goodbye to autocracy. Whatever form it takes, what justification you are trying to, authoritarian government always ends with trampling on equality, with the refusal of justice and with the theft of happiness and laughter of people.

We also have to leave the discrimination behind because it is narrow -minded and ignorant because it refuses relationships and sympathy; Because it destroys people's conviction that humanity can improve on its own. The only way to avoid misunderstanding, war and bloodshed is to defend freedom of expression and to communicate with sincerity, caution and good intentions.

The "Vogelnest" national stadium that I helped to design was designed to embody the Olympic spirit of "fair competition". It tells people that freedom is possible, but needs fairness, courage and strength.

According to these principles, I will stay away from the opening ceremony because I believe that freedom of choice is the basis for fair competition. The freedom of choice is the right that I appreciate the most. If we want it, a moment of courage, hope and passion can be today. This day will test our faith in the human breed and our determination to build a better future. ”

Art and struggle continue

In 2009, Ai Weiwei also reminded with 9,000 children's backpacks , at the Haus der Kunst in Munich during the “So Sorry”

In 2010 Ai Weiwei built a four -ton rock on the Dachstein in Styria “Hoher Dachstein”

2010/2011 bring "The Unilever Series: Sunflower Seeds" sun into the Tate Modern in London: On the bottom of the former turbine hall AI Weiwei scattered "100 million" handmade porcelain sunflower seeds, which can initially be "run" by the enthusiastic visitors (but soon no longer, the abrasion was too strong).

In 2011, Ai Weiwei interpreted the legendary 12 zodiac heads “Circle of Animals / Zodiac Heads” The zodiac heads had been stolen in 1860, presumably by foreign companies, with his version, ai Weiwei wants to draw attention to the questions of fake and copy, looting and return.

In 2011 Ai Weiwei released his blog on the Internet, which was closed by the Chinese government in 2006, a unique and unique critical collection of texts to the "New China": "Do not make any illusions about me". The forbidden blog. Edited by Lee Ambrozy. Galiani Verlag, Berlin 2011.

In 2012, the documentary "Never Sorry 'For Exposing China's Oppression" (I will never apologize to uncover the oppression in China) by Alison Klaymann, with excerpts from three years from Ai Weiwei, including his arrest 2011, with German premiere at Documenta 13.

In 2013 Ai Weiwei went under the heavy metal musician for the protest, in May the heavy metal single "Dumbass" out, followed by the album "The Divine Comedy" in June. Ai Weiwei had a good reason why music became his new creative expression: the artist became a singer during his detention because Wächter asked him to sing against the silence of the isolation that was even perceived by the attention.

At that time, Ai Weiwei only knew revolutionary songs, after his discharge he quickly dealt with creating his own music ... Ai Weiwei let the Chinese rock singer Zuziao Zuzhou Zuzhou to teach himself, the idea for an album soon came up, "so that he could at least sing other songs when the authorities collect him again."

There is also a good reason why Ai Weiwei chose Heavy Metal as a musical form of expression is the music that fits the martial texts. The texts are realistic, they deal with confrontations with the police, or tell about jumping in the wall, quite ambiguous because wall jumping in the Chinese colloquial language also means the jump over the notorious "firewall" Beijings, overcoming Internet course.

At first glance, it is “only” about the blind farmer's lawyer Chen Guangcheng, who secretly and over the wall of his farm fled to Beijing, where he reached security in front of the Chinese police state by jumping over a second wall (which of the US embassy).

There is also a reason why the artist wore the great fried hair and a rampant beard at the time of the release of the album, and this reason is not that Ai Weiwei wanted to look like a seasoned heavy metal singer. Rather, the wild hairstyle should make him look exactly as he stood out at the time of his solitary confinement - overgrown, deranged, deprivatized.

In spring 2014, Ai Weisweis film "The Fake Case" in cinemas, a Canadian-Danish-British production directed by the award-winning Danish documentary filmmaker Andreas Rosforth Johnsen.

With Ai Weiwei as the only actor, more actors, there is no need to present ai Weisweis in detention (Ai Weiwei The Fake Case (2013), CN/DK/GB duration 86 minutes, FSK 0, documentary, documentary film, drama, cinema start 08.05.2014), more about ai Weiwei political situation can be experienced in the article "Ai Weiwei - The fake Case" .

New art AI Weis is constantly being created, in March 2013 a huge facade image in the Chilean port of Valparaiso is unveiled, which Ai Weiwei designed as a tribute to Pablo Neruda. "A Pablo" ("for Pablo") , a mural of 900 square meters, decorates the facade of the former prison of Valparaiso, which is now a cultural center.

Images of the Senkaku Islands, the islands, about which China and Japan are arguing about, are shown a line from the poem "Cabo de Chile" , which Ai Weiwei's father ai Qing devoted Pablo Neruda

Ai Weiwei has long been fully booked into the future with new projects, and for a long time decided to work for the integrity of the individual - prerequisite for respect for human rights and freedom of expression and for every democracy.