{"id":13405,"date":"2015-07-29T14:57:54","date_gmt":"2015-07-29T12:57:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.area-arch.it\/ai-wei-wei-2\/"},"modified":"2016-10-27T12:31:49","modified_gmt":"2016-10-27T10:31:49","slug":"ai-weiwei","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.area-arch.it\/en\/ai-weiwei\/","title":{"rendered":"Ai Weiwei"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wang Family Ancestral Hall\u00a02015\u2028Over 1,300 pieces of various wooden building elements from late Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) with original carvings and painted replacements \u20282100 x 1680 x 942 cm\u00a0<\/em>Courtesy: the artist and GALLERIA CONTINUA, San Gimignano \/ Beijing \/ Les Moulins \u00a0–\u00a0<\/em>photo by\u00a0Oak Taylor-Smith<\/em><\/p>\n

Galleria Continua \/ Beijing in cooperation with Tang Contemporary Art Center<\/strong>
\n curated by Cui Cancan<\/strong>
\n 6th June\u00a0– 31st December 2015<\/strong><\/p>\n

For the first time in his life, the famous Chinese artist designs and realizes a solo exhibition in his home country, following the entire development of the project from conception to realization in situ. Ai Weiwei<\/em> is an exhibition that take place in two galleries spaces: Galleria Continua\/Beijing <\/strong>and Tang Contemporary Art Center<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen\u00a0 you invited me to have a show, of course, I felt I should do a show for me, and I put more effort into it.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never really had a solo show in China. I\u2019ve shown my work several times in different galleries, but never have I made a work specifically for the show\u2026What makes this show special is that I have to make the work I have to be involved, and I have to create a kind of policy or process.\u00a0The show should be a process rather than a final presentation, because processes are more complicated. For me in particular, it is a learning process and a struggle.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Two galleries will cooperate hosting Wang Jiaci, (the Wang family ancestral hall) an ancestral temple of Ming age, dedicated to the cult of Wang Hua, an important prince who was reigning during the 6th century A.D., taken as reference by all future dynasties, from Tang to Qing. For hundreds of years, the ancestral temple was considered a sacred place, destined to host offerings and cult ceremonies for ancestors, as well as a place for holding important social activities or meetings and those concerning the Wang family.
\nAi WeiWei decided to buy it, because it suited his needs better than any other building, even it cost ten times more that a typical building, due to its large and extremely rare structure. The building has been disassembled into more than 1500 pieces and meticulously re-built inside the two exhibitive areas, crossing the wall that divides the two galleries.
\nThe peculiarity of this traditional architecture lies in its structure consisting of columns and wooden beams, completely independent and detachable from the walls. This building technique, recently developed also in the West, was used in China over one thousand years ago and is strictly related to the Chinese philosophy and thought.
\nThe choice to bring a predominant installation with imposing structure, cultural importance and aesthetic beauty inside an exhibition and two galleries, aimed at setting conditions of \u201ctotality\u201d where the environment, which is no longer physical but also temporal and social, becomes an essential aspect of the work. Thus, visitors become part of the project, and their behaviour forms an inseparable part of it. The visitor, invited to enter the two exhibitive areas at different times, is forced to see the work only partially, without ever being able to view and enjoy the entire architectural structure from a single point. The public is invited to walk inside a \u201csocial context\u201d rather than a visual one, a condition in which the architectural object was deprived of its original use, thus acquiring a new shape and meaning. The behaviour of those who live this experience becomes, therefore, the focus of the entire project, and even the work itself.
\nAi Weiwei focuses, once again, on the importance of human actions within a particular event, not only of artistic, but also of social and public character. The artist\u2019s decision in slip this house between two spaces, one from China and one from aborad that has been in China a long time, belongs from the idea that it is a very different way of presenting an artwork both to the market and to the audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cthirty years ago, China invented the concept of the joint venture, akin to \u201cone country, two systems\u201d China itself comprises Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. This is how society works: you need to \u201cco-accept\u201d things, measure and discuss, and converse on different levels.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The artist doesn\u2019t know what wil happen once the show end\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t considered this; I don\u2019t know if it should be destroyed, taken somewhere else, or exhibited again in a new location. I try not to think that much; it is my strategy to think less. I try to concentrate on what I do and it seems to work well, but it sometimes brings a lot of trouble. \u201c<\/em><\/p>\n