Despite all the incredible hostility shown him in his own country Ai Weiwei decided to put on his largest one-man exhibition yet in Berlin’s Martin-Gropius-Bau. On 3,000 square metres in 18 rooms and the spectacular Lichthof he will be displaying works and installations which were either designed for the Martin-Gropius-Bau or have not yet been shown in Germany.
Modernism is the original creation of enlightened human beings, it is the ultimate observation of the meaning of existence and the misery of reality; it keeps a wary eye on society and power; it never makes compromises and never cooperates.
Ai Weiwei 1997 (quoted from “Ai Weiwei - Der verbotene Blog”, Galiani: Berlin, 2011).
Known as Diaoyu Islands in Chinese and the Senkaku Islands in Japanese, this small archipelago is the backdrop for an intense ongoing territorial dispute that has stirred patriotic fervor in both countries. The carved marble work conceptualizes the geopolitical debate into a cartoonish physical presence and presents it as a topographical sculpture of the various islands of Diaoyu at reduced scale. The monumentality of the installation continues Ai’s experimentations with scale, materials, and transforming reality into tangible experiences.
From the Press Release:
"Among the works and installations on display at the Martin-Groupius-Bau will be a golden copy of the zodiac sculptures (Golden Zodiac, 2011) cast in bronze (c. 1750) by Chinese craftsmen according to designs by the Europeans Castiglione and Benoist. They formed part of a kind of sun and water clock and were located in a garden commissioned by the Emperor which also featured buildings in the European style. In 1860, after the end of the Second Opium War, the entire garden was ransacked and torched by the rapacious British and French soldiers that had conquered Beijing in order to force China to take part in the opium trade. Some of these bronze zodiac figures found their way to Europe, and when they turned up in Paris in 2008 at an auction of Yves Saint-Laurent's art collection they caused a sensation in the Chinese cultural sphere. Ai Weiwei does not accept the Chinese government's stance, that these bronze figures are Chinese national treasures, declaring that, rather, they belong to the whole world."
Evidence opens in Berlin at Martin-Gropius-Bau on April 3, 2014, and runs through July 7. Find out more about the epic exhibition by clicking here.
“Ai Weiwei – Evidence”.
Venue.- Martin-Gropius-Bau. Niederkirchnerstraße 7. 10963 Berlin. Germany. [Map]
Date.- 3 April to 7 July 2014.
Phtography: Courtesy of Martin-Gropius-Bau.
