Brighter mood as blue-chip art finds buyers at Miami Beach

4 THE ART NEWSPAPER ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH DAILY EDITION 3 DECEMBER 2009
Artists
“To use art is not enough”
Ai Weiwei on the reasons writing, blogging and tweeting on politics matters
INTERVIEW
AI WEIWEI
Chinese artist Ai Weiwei,
speaking today at Art Basel
Conversations (right), is
recovering from brain surgery
in Munich, the result, he says,
of an assault by police officers
in Sichuan Province. “The
operation saved my life,” he
said when The Art Newspaper
visited his Beijing studio just
before the fair, adding that it
will take around four months
for him to fully recover.
Ai’s popular blog on
Chinese website Sina.com has
been removed, and his activities
are now limited to
Twitter, on which he has
around 10,000 followers.
“140 characters is enough—
following the operation, that
is all I have the attention span
for,” he said. “I cannot write
long articles right now.”
Twitter is blocked by the government
in China, so users
hack into the site.
Recent topics on his prolific
feed have included his
ongoing struggle with Sichuan
police over the assault, his
research into the Sichuan
earthquake, the nomination of
Chinese writers for the
International PEN Writers in
Prison award and the recent
Obama visit to China, often
using strong language. The
police in Sichuan have issued
an official denial of his assault
(Ai says he has a recording of
the attack that took place
against him), and the government
has now launched a
probe into his finances.
Describing his move into
the media, Ai said: “To use art
is not enough, to describe
your view, in the old traditional
forms, such as painting,
sculpture…as a citizen you
need to express your views.
Writing, blogging and giving
interviews is a part of that,
otherwise you will very easily
be misunderstood by the
establishment…as long as
there is power and people
there will be a struggle.”
Ai grew up with his family
in exile in Shihezi, on a semimilitary
farm camp in
Xinjiang Province, in the
north west of China. “[The
Cultural Revolution] was
nothing but frightening,” he
said. “The whole society was
frightening. I was born in
1957—the year my father [the
poet Ai Qing] went into exile.
First he was sent to the forests
in north China to work, then
one year later to Xinjiang, so I
grew up there until I was 18
Ai Wei Wei photographed in Beijing last week, with the scars of his ordeal clearly visible
years old. During the Cultural
Revolution we were sent to
live in the poorest conditions
as punishment. I hate to tell
those stories, there is too
much sentiment there. The
fact is people died, were
dying. My father lost his sight
in one eye, he almost died several
times, and I came out of
there very fragile.”
Ai then went to New York.
“A completely different civil-
isation—1980s art, German
expressionism, all these kinds
of things there,” he said. His
career started as a painter. “In
school I majored in animation
and then started doing more
installations or objects. I
came back to China in 1993,
having left in 1981.” Ai was
one of the original members
of the Stars Group, considered
the most important
movement following China’s
reform process of the 1980s.
“This was completely new,
freedom, but the party would-
n’t let you go too far, unless
there was some structure.
There were struggles, there
was no real understanding of
contemporary life then, it was
more art for art’s sake—but
quite political.”
Ai said he threw away his
work from that period. “I
never knew I would be so successful
today…I had my first
show in 2004, in Bern.” Ai had
already been in China for more
Art is not about making people
happy. Not much art touches
the taboo
than ten years, working on his
underground book project, and
had founded the China Art
Archives and Warehouse
gallery with Hans van Dijk. He
also co-curated the Shanghai
exhibition “Fuck Off” in 2000
at Eastlink Gallery, with Feng
Boyi. “I was quite unhappy
about some of the content [of
that show], but art is not about
making people happy. Not
much art touches the taboo—it
was ugly, bloody, violent and
sickening, but not far from
reality. Reality in China is at
least one million times worse.”
Ai’s latest work is
Sunflower Seeds, 2009, a pile
of 1,000 handmade ceramic
sunflower seeds. “These seeds,
they are a memory of the
Communist times, we would
share these seeds with
friends,” he said. He does not
know what effect the Chinese
government’s censorship on
art exports (The Art
Newspaper, November 2009,
p1) will have on future shows
he may have abroad—works
for his previous two major
shows this year at the Munich
Haus der Kunst and Tokyo’s
Mori Art Museum were
shipped out of China before
the rules came into place in
August. “I think strategically
China has come to a very crucial
moment, they have to rejustify
themselves, even the
past 20 to 30 years are based
on a kind of destructive, suicidal
act. Now they are trying to
reach a higher level, but I think
in any society, culture should
have its own rights, not to be
touched by the government,
not to be promoted by the government,
also not to be
destroyed by the government.”
Chris Gill
For the full version of this
interview, see the January
issue of The Art Newspaper
Today’s highlights
03/12/09
Art Basel Conversations
Oceanfront, Collins Park,
between 21st and 22nd
Streets, Miami Beach
www.artbaselmiami
beach.com
Artist Talk: Ai Weiwei
Chinese artist Ai Weiwei
speaks with Philip Tinari,
director of the Office for
Discourse Engineering in
Beijing.
10am-11am
Art Salon
Miami Beach Convention
Center, Miami Beach
www.artbaselmiami
beach.com
Artist Talk: Pae White
US artist Pae White
speaks with Creative
Time’s curator Meredith
Johnson and president
Anne Pasternak.
1pm-1.30pm
Panel: New Market
Dynamics: Five
Perspectives on
the Global Art Scene
Panel discussion with
journalist Lindsay
Pollock, art advisor
Suzanne Gyorgy, Norton
Museum of Art curator
Charles Stainback and
Art + Auction journalist
Judd Tully, moderated by
Renée Vara, founder of
Vara Global Fine Arts,
New York.
2pm-2.30pm
Panel: Gender, Wars
and Chadors, Part III
Artists Ghada Amer,
Kader Attia and Akram
Zaatari speak with Hans
Ulrich Obrist, of London’s
Serpentine Gallery.
3pm-3.30pm
Artist Talk: Shepard
Fairey
Los Angeles street artist
Shepard Fairey speaks
with independent curator
Pedro Alonzo.
4pm-4.30pm
Artist Talk: Cristina
Lei Rodriguez and
Eduardo Abaroa
The artists speak with
Mexico-based curator
Patrick Charpenel.
5pm-5.30pm
Presentation: No Soul
For Sale. Independent
Spaces at X Initiative
Presentation by New
York curator Cecilia
Alemani.
5.30pm-6pm
Pecha Kucha:
Contemporary Art
& Social Media =
Network & Networth
Presentations by Artnet
associate editor Ben
Davis; Ruthless and
Toothless chief executive
Joey Hernandez;
moblog:tech director Lori
Faye Fischler; artist and
designer Leyden
Rodriguez-Casanova;
PopTech digital content
and community manager
Kristen Taylor; new
media artist [dNASAb];
and CultureOfFuture.com
head Jody Turner.
Moderated by Carl
Hildebrand, director of
Miami’s Pecha Kucha
networking events.
6pm-6.30pm
Design Talks
Design Miami Media
Lounge, NE 39th Street
and 1st Court, Miami
Design District
www.designmiami.com
Collections,
Commissions and
Collaborations
French shoe designer
Christian Louboutin
speaks with decorator
and design collector
Jacques Grange and
Swiss designer Mattia
Bonetti.
5.30pm-6.30pm
Design Performances
Design Miami Media
Lounge, NE 39th Street
and 1st Court, Miami
Design District
www.designmiami.com
Moritz Waldemeyer
andOkGo
Los Angeles band Ok Go
play on guitars customised
by Londonbased
designer Moritz
Waldemeyer to perform
like paintbrushes.
6.30pm-7pm
Art Video
Oceanfront at Collins
Park, between 21st and
22nd Streets, Miami
Beach, www.artbasel
miamibeach.com
Video Art and
Mainstream Distribution
Video art curated by
Meredith Johnson of
Creative Time, featuring
works by Tom Sachs &
the Neistat Brothers and
Marc Horowitz, followed
by a panel discussion.
7pm-8.30pm
Art Perform
Oceanfront at Collins
Park, between 21st and
22nd Streets, Miami
Beach, www.artbasel
miamibeach.com
Programme curated by
CCA Wattis Institute
director Jens Hoffmann
Featuring performances
by artists Simon
Fujiwara, Kris Martin
and Kelly Nipper.
9pm-10pm