Ai Weiwei with rockstar Zuoxiao Zuzhou in the elevator when taken in custody by the police, Sichuan, China, August 2009
Study of Perspective – Eiffel Tower, 1995-2003
Dear Shaded Viewers and Diane,
Ai Weiwei is possibly the most contemporary of contemporary artists. He's big, and bright, and so modern indeed, that he's almost like future himself. Always a step ahead, paving the right path for us to follow, in his patient, but disciplining, distinctively oriental way. With objectives as wide as China in mind, in fact, one can hardly afford to indulge in our very western impatience, nor in any kind of cowardly desertion.
In his obstinate, devoted, always heartfelt approach, Ai Weiwei produces reality itself, moment after moment, a sunflower seed after the other, a continuous flow of Twitter snapshots, art made of truth and presence and immediacy and therefore lively, instantaneous, swarming with people and hope.
Sichuan Earthquake, 2008-2010
For his Entrelacs (Interlacing) exhibition, more than 200,000 photographs from his blog archives, miraculously saved from a police blitz at his studio after he was arrested last year, have been carefully examined and selected and are now on show at the illustrious venue of Jeu De Paume in Paris, along with other remarkable photographs, videos, and explanatory essays of his own.
Thousands of portraits and self-portraits and rugs, food, tiny Chinese heirlooms, blurred idols and beliefs, military guards and blossoming peaches, newspapers and poetry, captured with his iPhone and instantly set free on the internet, whisper of a new form of realism in art, soaked in life not just to witness it, but to actively become part of it. At once private and public, optimistic and dangerous, Ai Weiwei's life is his major art piece. "I don't imagine things. I have no imagination, no memory. I act on the moment." he once said to Hans Ulrich Obrist.
Being an architect as well as an artist, Ai Weiwei persistently builds new bridges between people and thoughts, while he dismantles old walls and our "unquestioned deference" towards certain authorities. And even when his building is demolished overnight as illegal -like his arts and cultural studio on the outskirts of Shanghai-, his faithful pictures survive to tell its tale. Ai Weiwei believes in fact that "architecture is not just about the end result of a building, but also the struggle, process, and evolution of an idea". A bit like Penelope's shroud then, even its destruction may have its meaning. And just like hers, Ai Weiwei's perseverance, loyalty, and devotion will grant him a place in history and myth.
A memory from last year's show at Tate Modern:
Later,
Silvia Bombardini