China's most prominent artist, Ai Wei Wei, has raised provocative questions about his home country at a new exhibition of his work in Germany. Until recently, he enjoyed protection and patronage from Beijing. But now his unflinching search for truth has made him a target of official violence.

by Marijke van der Meer

The outspoken Ai Wei Wei is considered to be China’s most important living artist.  He is well-known for his collaboration with Swiss architects on the design of the "Bird's Nest", the Olympic Stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. But he later expressed regret for taking part in the project and called the stadium a propaganda stage for glorifying an unjust state. He never visited the site.

Ai Wei Wei’s artwork can now be seen in a new exhibition at Munich's 'Haus der Kunst'. Museum director Chris Dercon stresses that Ai Wei Wei is one of the world's most important living artists, working in numerous disciplines from sculpture and photography to architecture and design. Dercon says he is also an increasingly politicized artist, whose work and public statements loudly proclaim the individual's right to independent  thought and free speech. 

Suppressed information
The first work confronting the visitor is a giant installation called "Remembering". Stretching across the facade of the ‘Haus der Kunst’, it displays nine thousand schoolchildren’s backpacks in primary colors forming Chinese characters that read : "She lived happily in this world for seven years". The sentence comes from the mother of one of the many thousands of children who died in their classrooms during the 2008 Sechuan earthquake. Ai Wei Wei has been trying to determine the number of child fatalities and their names, in defiance of the Chinese authorities, who have suppressed such information. His list of the names is to be published in a few weeks. In a press conference that opened the exhibition, he was asked if he would ever consider entering politics in China. He said that he would never refuse if he could change the circumstances of people’s lives.

Ai Wei Wei is the son of the noted Chinese poet Ai Qing, who was banished and censored during the Cultural Revolution. Ai Qing was rehabilitated in 1978, and his son believes he was safe from official harassment for a long time because of his father. But on 12 August, while working on his names project in Sechuan, 30 armed policemen showed up at his hotel in the middle of the night and detained Ai Wei Wei and ten of his volunteer assistants. He sustained head injuries and it was later determined that he needed brain surgery. The entrance hall of the Munich exhibition displays a giant blow-up of a shot Ai Wei Wei took of himself with his cell phone camera during the arrest. The photograph likewise appears on his website, which attracts up to ten thousand people a day.

Book Fair controversy
The Haus der Kunst itself is a politically loaded space. Adolf Hitler was personally involved in its construction in 1937 and it was built as a showcase for Nazi-approved art. Ai Wei Wei says the 'Haus der Kunst' provides him with the context and the framework to examine some of the questions he raises about China. In the museum's giant Hall of Honor, where Hitler held some of his speeches vilifying modern art, stands Ai Wei Wei's work "Template". Originally a tower, made up of one-thousand-and-one doors from the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911), "Template" was blown down by the wind while on display at the "Documenta" art exhibition in 2007, but Ai Wei Wei prefers its present "destroyed" state.

 
The news of Ai Wei Wei's emergency hospitalization in Munich coincided with reports about censorship at the Frankfurt Book Fair, where China is this year's guest of honour. Ai Wei Wei was scheduled to speak in the coming days at the world-famous gathering of publishers and writers (taking place from 14 to 18 October), but he has cancelled his appearance there - for health and practical reasons, he says.

There is some speculation, however, that his decision is linked to an incident in which the organizers were pressured by the official Chinese representatives not to invite the dissident writers Bei Ling and Dai Qing to a symposium on the eve of the Fair. When the two writers defiantly showed up anyway, the official Chinese delegates walked out. This raised questions in the German press about the Fair's willingness to compromise and about China’s relentless tradition of censorship.

  
Legal action
The title of the Ai Wei Wei exhibition in Munich is "So Sorry", a reference to what Chris Dercon sees as  a worldwide phenomenon.  We have become a society of apologizers, he says. "Everywhere in China, Europe and America, when you ask what happened to my money, what happened to my passport, what happened to my newspaper, we hear all the time 'So Sorry'." Ai Wei Wei has told the press that he will consider taking legal action if suspicions are confirmed that his head injuries were caused by police brutality. It remains to be seen whether the artist will get the authorities to do even as much as say "So Sorry".

 

Photos:

1. Entrance hall of the exhibition:  displays a large blowup of a photograph Ai Wei Wei took of himself as he was being detained by police in Chengdu, Sechuan on August 12. Injuries he sustained during this incident led to emergency brain surgery in Munich a few weeks later.  The photograph, which likewise appears on his website,  illustrates the artist’s relentless use of modern communication technology, as well as his use of documentation—in this case, medical statements by his German doctors attached to the blow-up.
2. Ai Wei Wei and 'Haus der Kunst' director Chris Dercon enjoying yet another one of the innumerable aspects of life that the artists integrates into his total production, in this case the art of cooking.
3. Antique Chinese vases dipped in industrial paints, an ongoing series
4. More antique Chinese vases
5. Cube Light (2008)
6. "Rooted Upon": 100 pieces of trunks of trees from all over China
7. "Remembering": Nine thousand school children’s backpacks in primary colours cover the fassade of Munich's 'Haus der Kunst' forming Chinese characters that read : “She lived happily in this world for seven years”. The sentence comes from the mother of one of the many thousands of children who died in their classrooms during the 2008 Sechuan earthquake. Ai Wei Wei has been trying to determine the number of child fatalities and their names, in defiance of the Chinese authorities, who have suppressed such information. His list of the names is to be published in a few weeks.
   The 'Haus der Kunst' itself is one of the most notorious spots in art history, for Adolf Hitler was personally involved in its construction in 1937 and it was built as a showcase for Nazi- approved art. Ai Wei Wei says 'Haus der Kunst' provides him with the context and the framework to examine some of the questions he raises about China. 
8. "Template" (2007) : Originally a tower, made up of one-thousand-and-one doors from the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911), "Template" was blown down by the wind while on display at the “Documenta” art exhibition in 2007, but Ai Wei Wei prefers its present ""destroyed" state.  It illustrates the artist's continuous use of found objects, especially those referring to Chinese tradition and identity, and his preoccupation with numbers. The choice of wood for this object also reflects Ai Wei Wei's repeated use of the physical materials of Chinese identity- bamboo, pearls, tea , porcelain, etc.  "Template" significantly stands in the huge "Ehrenhalle" (Hall of Honour), where Hitler delivered speeches on art.

Related blogs:

• https://blog.aiweiwei.com
• http://www.bullogger.com/blogs/aiww
• http://aiweiwei.blog.hausderkunst.de