Ai Weiwei's enforced absence casts a shadow over a superb show of his work in Berlin
By C.G. | BERLIN
THE biggest ever exhibition of the work of Ai Weiwei, China’s most internationally prominent artist, opened in Berlin last week, exactly three years after his arrest at Beijing airport. Mr Ai has yet to receive an official explanation for why he was held in solitary confinement for 81 days or why he was suddenly set free. His passport has not been returned, which prevents him from travelling abroad. And his house on the outskirts of Beijing remains under surveillance, as is he as soon as he leaves the property.
Yet despite his fears of re-arrest, Mr Ai’s optimism, creativity and political commitment remain unbroken, as this show testifies. In a video message delivered at the opening of the exhibition, Mr Ai emphasised how closely it relates to his own experiences. Indeed it not only shows his remarkable artistic skill, but also his reflections on both his stint in solitary confinement and the despotism of the Chinese state.
The high atrium of the Martin Gropius Bau provides a superb location for "Stools" (pictured), a display of 6,000 wooden stools from the Ming period (1368-1644) onwards, all original and collected by Mr Ai and his staff. For centuries a basic part of all Chinese households, they fell from favour in a China which started producing plastic versions far more cheaply. The wooden stools have consequently become symbols of the enormous migration of the country's rural population to the cities and the speed at which traditional values can fall victim to economic growth.
Another impressive display hanging from the ceiling is “Very Yao”, an installation of 150 Chinese-made bicycles. This exhibit was made in memory of Yang Jia, a man from Beijing executed in Shanghai in 2008. Mr Yang had been arrested in 2007 for driving an unlicensed bicycle, after which he made allegations of police brutality. He was subsequently charged with the revenge killing of six officers. But his closed trial caused a sensation, and many in China’s internet community defended Mr Yang and celebrated him as a hero who had rebelled against police corruption.
The most personal exhibit in the show is “81”, a replica of the cell in which Mr Ai was kept after his arrest in 2011. In contrast to the much smaller version that he made for the Venice Biennale last year, this one can be entered. Visitors will find the glaring light, dirty toilet and plastic covering on everything that could otherwise be used for self-harm decidedly creepy.
Mr Ai’s interests go beyond reflections on his own imprisonment and China’s social and political developments. With “Circle of Animals”, 12 gilded reproductions of 18th-century bronze zodiac heads, he nods to the country's ongoing debate about patriotism, repatriation and the value of national art. The famous originals once stood in the garden of Beijing’s Old Summer Palace, which was looted by British and French troops at the end of the Second Opium War in 1860. Seven have been traced so far (including the rat and the rabbit, in an auction of Yves Saint Laurent’s art collection in 2009) and have been returned to China.
Mr Ai concludes his video message saying: “I hope I will be able to come to Berlin and enjoy the show with the audience.” Other institutions in Berlin would dearly love him to make the trip: the city's University of Arts is waiting for Mr Ai to start a guest professorship this month, and he is expected to join the general meeting of the Academy of Arts (of which he is a member) in mid-May. In an open letter, the “Friends of Ai Weiwei” asked Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the foreign minister who is travelling to China later this month, for support.
In the meantime the rebel must be patient.
"Ai Weiwei–Evidence", at Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin, until July 13th 2014
