Biography for Ai Weiwei

Brief regarding Ai Weiwei’s concept for the installation on Langelinie, Copenhagen in connection with the Little Mermaids journey.

Weiwei, has submitted a description of the artwork that will be displayed on Langelinie during the period when The Little Mermaid is on loan to EXPO in Shanghai in 2010.

Download large scale picture (1205x807 pixels, 9 MB)

The artwork in question can best be described as a multimedia installation which simultaneously registers, documents and articulates the movements and changes that take place during the months when the mermaid is away, including her absence from Langelinie and her presence in Shanghai.

Thus, through a neutral lens, the artwork creates a connection between cultures and destinations, but it also conveys differences and shifts.

Technically, the activity occurs around the clock and the reproduction of images etc. happens in several layers at once. Incorporated in the piece are a number of technologies such as cameras and web connections for the transfer of data.

The above-mentioned is a proposal in the concept stage. The plan is therefore to concretize the artwork in the coming days and months in order to present an actual description of the piece containing visual sketches. This process among other things involves Ai Weiwei visiting the Copenhagen and Langelinie in the near future.

Biography

Ai Weiwei is born in Beijing in 1957 

As an anchorman in the first Chinese avant-garde-movement, Ai Weiwei was one of the founders of the art-group ‘Stars’ in 1978 and is often referred to as the Andy Warhol of China. He might just be the biggest and internationally most recognized contemporary Chinese artist.

His art often leans on the utopian ambitions of a ’brave new world’ of constructivism. With his physical components and impressive architectural projects that seek to match this brave new world, he creates subtly political pieces that take a critical stand towards the radical changes presently taking place in China.

His eclectic and energetic personality has let him cover a lot of ground in the art- and culture milieu. From curator and artistic head of China Art Archive & Warehouse to architect-consultant with Herzog & Meuron’s Olympic stadium, the Bird’s Nest. Museum of Modern Art in San Fransisco, various galleries in New York and Hara Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo are but few of the places where Ai Weiwei has done exhibitions.

Selected references:

2008, Birds Nest, Beijing

Ai Weiwei composed the Olympic stadium 2008 in cooperation with Herzog & Meuron.

2007, Template, Fairytale, DOKUMENTA, Kassel

For the exhibition ’Dokumenta’ in 2007, Ai Weiwei invited 1001 Chinese to Kassel as part of a major project called Fairytale. Besides the 1001 Chinese that had a chance to experience Europe for the first time, Ai Weiwei also brought 1001 chairs from the Qing dynasty that could be found all over the Dokumenta exhibition-area.

2003, ”Forever” Bicycles, Robert Miller Gallery, NY

An imposing and at the same time weightless sculpture made from one of the most useful objects of the Chinese everyday life; the bicycle. 42 original Chinese bikes (the bicycle was made in 1940 and is still produced in Shanghai) is assembled in an installation that could seemingly go on forever… with acknowledgements to Duchamps readymade.

2008, ILLUMINATION, Mary Boone Gallery, New York

An imposing chandelier taking up almost the entire main room in the gallery. The piece consists of 60.000 red crystals. The ‘Chandelier’ does not hang from the ceiling but has supposedly fallen to the ground and lies still illuminated bended and ‘broken’ on the floor. The red light mirrors the red colour that China is often associated with –either as an allusion to communism or to traditional Chinese festivity.

The piece ‘Worldmap’ consists of 2000 layers of clothes neatly cut into the shape of a map of the world. To install ‘Worldmap’ takes  a lot of hands –a very deliberate point of Ai Weiwei, to emphasize the reference to China’s status as the place with inexhaustible amounts of cheap labour in the clothing- and textile-industry.