NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 16:24
As of today, one of the most famous modern artists in the world has his largest exhibition ever in the Rotterdam Kunsthal. Chinese Ai Weiwei (66) makes art with a social message and is not afraid to openly criticize his homeland, where citizens are increasingly under pressure from an autocratic government.
In addition to being an artist, Ai Weiwei is also a human rights activist and his art has regularly gotten him into trouble. For example, Ai ended up in jail in 2011 because, according to the Chinese authorities, he had called on the population to revolt against the country’s political system. He was released after three months, but remained under house arrest. He only got his passport back four years later.
In this video Ai Weiwei explains what the exhibition in Rotterdam means to him:
For artist and activist Ai Weiwei, his work is ‘a way to take revenge’
The exhibition includes 120 works from Ai Weiwei’s extensive oeuvre from the period from 1980 to the present. Such is the world famous work Sunflower Seeds (2010) to view, a surface with more than 1000 kilos of hand-painted porcelain sunflower seeds. Ai Weiwei thus plays with the well-known words Made in China.
Also the work Forever Bicycles (2003) can be seen in Rotterdam, a construction of bicycles without handlebars. With this work, Weiwei wants to show that in China you do not decide where you cycle to.
EPA
Ai Weiwei with his artwork Sunflower Seeds
AFP
The artwork Forever Bicycles in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
AFP
Artwork of life jackets at the Konzerthaus in Berlin
Criticism of authoritarian governments is a common thread in Weiwei’s life and oeuvre. He grew up in exile because his father, the poet Ai Qing, was considered right-wing by the communist regime. He ended up in a re-education camp.
In the early 1980s, Weiwei left for America to train as a filmmaker. There he was inspired by the work of artists Marcel Duchamp and Andy Warhol.
His controversial works of art have been exhibited worldwide. For example, in 2017 Ai Weiwei drew attention to the refugee problem by wrapping part of the Berlin Konzerthaus with orange life jackets. He also had an exhibition in the Amsterdam Foam Photography Museum with thousands of photos of refugees who left for Europe.
2023-09-30 14:24:39
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