https://www.scmp.com/rss/42496/feed Ai Weiwei, Chinese artist and son of late poet Ai Qing, helped with the design of the "Birds Nest" Olympic stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He is also involved with Human rights, and concerned with political corruption of mainland China. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Alex Lo Alex Lo China has a few red lines. But if you respect them, life can be smooth and wonderful. China doesn’t care if you are Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Hindu or an atheist. It doesn’t care if your government is democratic, theocratic or dictatorial. If you want to do business, China is more than happy to partner with you. If you need aid, that’s fine; it won’t tell you what to do with the money or otherwise dictate your finances, so long as it sees some returns, whether commercial, strategic or... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3342876/outside-its-few-red-lines-china-ultimate-win-win-country?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3342876/outside-its-few-red-lines-china-ultimate-win-win-country?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 11 Feb 2026 01:30:10 +0000 A man smashed a sculpture by Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei during the private opening of his exhibition in the northern Italian city of Bologna, in an act of vandalism that the show’s curator described on Tuesday as a “reckless and senseless act.” The large blue and white Porcelain Cube was part of the exhibition “Who am I?” inaugurated at Bologna’s Palazzo Fava on Saturday. Italian media reported that local police arrested a 57-year-old Czech man, who said he was an artist. He was known... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3279797/chinese-artist-ai-weiweis-sculpture-porcelain-cube-smashed-exhibition-italy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3279797/chinese-artist-ai-weiweis-sculpture-porcelain-cube-smashed-exhibition-italy?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 24 Sep 2024 12:28:24 +0000 The Italian city of Venice has evolved into a well-oiled tourist machine over the years – it’s been rechristened Veniceland for a reason – and with that has come an ever-growing list of luxury hotels, from historic grand dames to dark and sexy renovated palazzos. Whenever a newcomer arrives on the scene the bar is set exceptionally high, as was the case when famed New York brand The St Regis opened its doors in 2019. As soon as the hotel comes into view from my water taxi, I can see why it... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/lifestyle/travel-hotels/article/3277252/st-regis-venice-offers-fresh-modern-take-citys-palazzo-hotels?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/lifestyle/travel-hotels/article/3277252/st-regis-venice-offers-fresh-modern-take-citys-palazzo-hotels?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 05 Sep 2024 04:00:16 +0000 In 2012, when Hong Kong’s M+ museum of visual culture received 1,510 important works by Chinese artists from the Swiss collector Uli Sigg as its founding collection, the contract between them stipulated that it must have three successive, dedicated exhibitions showing different selections from the collection in the three years after it opened in 2021. Afterwards, around 200 pieces must always be on public display in different parts of the museum or on loan to other institutions. Perhaps in light... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3235572/art-arts-sake-m-museums-new-show-no-political-art-born-ferment-1990s-china-whatever-sigg-collection?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3235572/art-arts-sake-m-museums-new-show-no-political-art-born-ferment-1990s-china-whatever-sigg-collection?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 24 Sep 2023 08:15:13 +0000 Chinese dissident and artist Ai Weiwei warns against hubris with his first glass sculpture, made on the Venetian island of Murano. The artwork’s title is intended as a warning to the world: Memento Mori – or Latin for “Remember You Must Die”. Ai did not have to search hard for evidence that the planet is in “such a troublesome time”. Russian bombs are falling daily on Ukraine. China is flexing its military muscle in the Taiwan Strait. Migrants die repeatedly at sea as smugglers’ boats sink. The... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3190381/ai-weiwei-venice-warns-against-hubris-troublesome-times-first?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3190381/ai-weiwei-venice-warns-against-hubris-troublesome-times-first?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 26 Aug 2022 19:14:53 +0000 Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei makes his directorial operatic debut in Rome on Tuesday with a new reading of Giacomo Puccini’s final, unfinished opera, “Turandot”. And with a storyline seeping with bloodshed and despotism, a new geopolitical focus and Ukrainian conductor Oksana Lyniv in the pit, the new production – originally meant to have premiered in 2020, but delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic – comes exactly on time. From the ominous opening five notes, the audience is plunged... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/3171455/china-dissident-artist-ai-weiwei-makes-operatic-debut-turandot-rome?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/3171455/china-dissident-artist-ai-weiwei-makes-operatic-debut-turandot-rome?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 22 Mar 2022 14:39:12 +0000 This story has been updated with a statement from the the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Six years is a long time to live with a death sentence. But after being diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer in 2015, Budiardjo “Budi” Tek harnessed the same positivity and drive that saw him rescue his company from bankruptcy in the 1990s, and poured himself into an urgent mission to preserve the legacy of his private museum and considerable Chinese art collection. Tek, who died in Hong Kong on... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3171255/chinese-indonesian-art-collector-budi-tek-preserved-legacy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3171255/chinese-indonesian-art-collector-budi-tek-preserved-legacy?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 21 Mar 2022 10:15:13 +0000 What do you do when a pandemic forces the closure of your contemporary art museum in Tokyo, your staff have to work from home, you can’t travel to visit the artists you showcase (and vice versa), and everyone is forced to put their lives on hold? If you’re the Mori Art Museum (MAM), you find other ways to stay relevant and, like so many other businesses, you go online. That’s what Mami Kataoka, director of MAM, describes in Artists’ Cookbook Under Lockdown (2021). She says that, pre-pandemic,... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/food-drink/article/3155807/what-do-artists-cook-their-kitchens-museum-stays?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/food-drink/article/3155807/what-do-artists-cook-their-kitchens-museum-stays?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 14 Nov 2021 21:15:24 +0000 A provocative exhibit by dissident Chinese artist Badiucao opened Saturday in the industrial northern Italian city of Brescia despite pressure from the Chinese embassy in Rome to cancel it. A letter from the embassy included veiled economic threats, noting Italy’s trade with China, in a bid to prevent the first solo exhibit by Badiucao – the pseudonym used by the artist whose work takes aim at China’s policies and human rights record. Brescia Mayor Emilio Del Bono “responded with delicacy and... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3155981/defying-china-italian-city-opens-exhibit-dissident-artist?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3155981/defying-china-italian-city-opens-exhibit-dissident-artist?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 13 Nov 2021 14:34:44 +0000 After nearly 20 years of waiting, Hong Kong on Friday finally celebrated the opening of its first purpose-built visual art museum, the M+, with more than 11,000 visitors thronging the venue for a peek inside the multibillion-dollar complex in the heart of the new West Kowloon cultural hub. The overwhelming response prompted the museum to announce in the evening that it would not accept walk-in visitors over the weekend. Doors will open from 10am to 6pm only for those who had registered... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3155825/hongkongers-turn-out-droves-celebrate-opening-new-m-museum?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3155825/hongkongers-turn-out-droves-celebrate-opening-new-m-museum?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 12 Nov 2021 06:37:16 +0000 For its opening exhibitions, Hong Kong’s M+ museum of visual culture has chosen about 1,500 works from its collection of 6,413 pieces. These can be found in 33 galleries spread across 17,000 square metres (183,000 square feet) of display space. Here are a few highlights to watch out for (Don’t miss the restored Kiyotomo sushi bar on the second floor.) Whitewash (1995-2000), by Ai Weiwei Rows of white and earth-tone jars, 126 in total, are arranged neatly on the ground, like freshly unearthed... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/arts-music/article/3155695/ai-weiweis-whitewashed-pots-antony-gormleys?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/arts-music/article/3155695/ai-weiweis-whitewashed-pots-antony-gormleys?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 12 Nov 2021 01:15:18 +0000 Hong Kong’s most ambitious museum ever, the M+, will not shy away from showcasing the work of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei in spite of past accusations that one of his works breached the national security law, an official overseeing the institution has said. Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor on Thursday said the museum’s opening represented a significant milestone in the history of the city’s most important cultural development. Acknowledging the criticisms the project’s huge public... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3155684/hong-kongs-new-m-museum-will-display-works-ai-weiwei?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3155684/hong-kongs-new-m-museum-will-display-works-ai-weiwei?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 11 Nov 2021 08:34:55 +0000 Hong Kong’s long-awaited M+ museum of visual culture will release early bird entry reservations and bookings from Friday ahead of its November 12 opening. The museum, part of the West Kowloon Cultural District, also announced that it had backflipped on part of an earlier decision and would now offer free entry to both Hong Kong residents and non-residents for the first 12 months, with the exception of special exhibitions and events. It had previously stated that non-residents would need to pay... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3154844/hong-kongs-m-museum-announces-ticket-details-early-bird?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3154844/hong-kongs-m-museum-announces-ticket-details-early-bird?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 04 Nov 2021 10:15:11 +0000 Art & Trousers: Tradition and Modernity in Contemporary Asian Art by David Elliott, pub. ArtAsiaPacific Foundation Trousers. A simple word that somehow has a ring of blustering pomposity about it. The item of clothing is, for cultural historian David Elliott, a symbol of the spread of Western imperialism, which exculpates the acquisition of territories by insisting on the West’s superiority compared with places where men wore the sarong, the changpao, the hakama. Hence the whimsical title of... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3150844/ai-weiwei-and-cai-guoqiang-trousers-xinjiang-3000?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3150844/ai-weiwei-and-cai-guoqiang-trousers-xinjiang-3000?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 03 Oct 2021 08:45:23 +0000 M+, arguably the most important museum ever to be built in Hong Kong and a litmus test for artistic and curatorial freedom under the National Security Law (NSL), has finally announced a grand opening date of November 12 after years of delay. Details released on Wednesday include the prices for admission, which cost HK$120 for adults and HK$60 for concessions. Hong Kong residents can enter for free in the first 12 months. The making of M+ Museum, a sombre and colossal structure in the shape of an... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3148041/hong-kongs-m-museum-visual-culture-finally-gets-opening-date?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3148041/hong-kongs-m-museum-visual-culture-finally-gets-opening-date?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 08 Sep 2021 12:28:01 +0000 Chinese dissident and artist Ai Weiwei has said Credit Suisse told him it was closing his foundation’s bank account in Switzerland earlier this year citing his “criminal record” in China, despite the activist never being convicted of a crime. One of China’s most high-profile artists and political activists, Ai, who now lives in Portugal, wrote in an opinion piece for website Artnet how he was first told by the Swiss bank that it would close the account in the spring of this year. “Credit Suisse... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3147933/chinese-dissident-ai-weiwei-says-credit-suisse-closing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3147933/chinese-dissident-ai-weiwei-says-credit-suisse-closing?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 07 Sep 2021 19:27:54 +0000 Last month, Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei inaugurated his first art exposition called “Rapture” in his new adoptive country, Portugal. At the press preview of the show, Ai expressed his gratitude to the host country by starting his inauguration speech with “Welcome to my country, Portugal.” Weiwei moved from the UK to Portugal two years ago. His reasons for it came from his expressed love for Portuguese traditional crafting and its slow-paced life. Portuguese media has enthusiastically... https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3139891/chinas-soft-power-goals-look-beyond-brash-media-campaigns?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3139891/chinas-soft-power-goals-look-beyond-brash-media-campaigns?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 09 Jul 2021 22:00:07 +0000 A careful read of the text on the walls of the inaugural exhibition at UCCA Edge in Shanghai reveals several discreet mentions of an irreverently named group exhibition curated by Ai Weiwei and Feng Boyi in 2000 that was a belligerent alternative to the well-funded Shanghai Biennale held concurrently that autumn. That provocative show is among the sources drawn upon by the newly opened Shanghai branch of Beijing art institution UCCA for its show “City on the Edge: Art and Shanghai at the Turn of... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3136008/good-range-21st-century-chinese-art-why-it-nearly-all-men?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3136008/good-range-21st-century-chinese-art-why-it-nearly-all-men?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 04 Jun 2021 07:15:05 +0000 Dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is putting on the biggest show of his career, and he is doing it in a place he’s fallen in love with: Portugal. The world-renowned visual artist’s new exhibition, “Rapture”, opens in the Portuguese capital Lisbon on Friday. Ai arrived in Portugal almost two years ago and says he has no plans to return to Germany or England, where he has also lived since leaving China in 2015. “I have a great feeling” about Portugal, the artist said on Thursday. “This is a place... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3135973/dissident-chinese-artist-ai-weiwei-picks-portugal-new-show-new?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3135973/dissident-chinese-artist-ai-weiwei-picks-portugal-new-show-new?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 03 Jun 2021 19:00:49 +0000 The opening this week of a Shanghai branch of the UCCA Centre for Contemporary Art (UCCA) marks the most significant expansion of the Beijing cultural institution since its founding in 2007. The non-profit art centre already has one satellite branch. The surrealist UCCA Dune opened in the northern resort town of Beidaihe in 2018, a series of conceptual buildings seemingly sitting inside a sand dune. But Shanghai is mainland China’s biggest and most international art hub, and the UCCA Edge, which... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3134127/shanghai-branch-opening-milestone-chinese-art-museum-ucca?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3134127/shanghai-branch-opening-milestone-chinese-art-museum-ucca?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 20 May 2021 23:15:10 +0000 Hong Kong’s M+ museum never planned to showcase a controversial photograph by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei depicting an upturned middle finger aimed squarely at the Gate of Heavenly Peace in Tiananmen Square during its opening exhibition, the chairman of the embattled West Kowloon Cultural District Authority insisted on Monday. While Henry Tang Ying-yen’s announcement confirmed an earlier report by the Post, some lawmakers said they were still concerned over the handling of some works that could... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3127486/head-hong-kong-arts-hub-insists-embattled-museum-never?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3127486/head-hong-kong-arts-hub-insists-embattled-museum-never?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 29 Mar 2021 09:36:29 +0000 Hong Kong’s M+ museum of visual culture will show works by outspoken Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei and art referencing the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy students despite the introduction of a national security law in the city, its director said on Friday. Suhanya Raffel was speaking during the first press tour of the just-completed building, ahead of its scheduled opening at the end of this year. The focal point of the government’s ambitious West Kowloon Cultural... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3125251/new-hong-kong-museum-will-uphold-artistic-freedom-director?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3125251/new-hong-kong-museum-will-uphold-artistic-freedom-director?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 12 Mar 2021 11:48:36 +0000 A mother of two in eastern China is so determined to make her jailed husband’s plight known that she is creating brazen public art happenings that have gone viral on social media. Tang Jie has invited supporters to go on live-streamed, 24-hour hunger strikes inside a metal cage in her flat in the city of Fuyang, and early on the morning of September 17, she and a team of helpers unleashed five giant inflatable balls on a suspension bridge. The desperate 34-year-old is demanding a new trial for... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3102633/woman-china-stages-public-art-protests-over-husbands-jailing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3102633/woman-china-stages-public-art-protests-over-husbands-jailing?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 24 Sep 2020 09:45:13 +0000 Ai Weiwei’s mother is visibly pained recalling her son’s life as a newborn. “He was born at his father’s darkest time,” says Gao Ying in the new documentary, Ai Weiwei: Yours Truly, released earlier this month from First Run Features. The film, directed by Cheryl Haines, co-directed by Gina Leibrecht and available to stream through select cinema websites in the US, explores the Chinese artist and human rights activist’s 2014 public art intervention, @Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz. And it has much... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3094948/ai-weiwei-living-exile-his-artistic-reaction-coronavirus-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3094948/ai-weiwei-living-exile-his-artistic-reaction-coronavirus-and?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 28 Jul 2020 11:15:04 +0000 Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei has partnered with Guggenheim Museum curator Alexandra Munroe to launch a series of face masks printed with some of his artworks. Ai is an outspoken critic of the Chinese Communist Party, and some of the masks feature drawings that hint at the Chinese authorities’ strict control of citizens: CCTV cameras, handcuffs and, more provocative, a raised middle finger. The latter, Mask with Middle Finger, will be sold separately as an artwork. The masks were... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/fashion-beauty/article/3086604/ai-weiwei-makes-art-face-masks-charity-says-society-wears?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/fashion-beauty/article/3086604/ai-weiwei-makes-art-face-masks-charity-says-society-wears?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 29 May 2020 03:19:16 +0000 Art and activism is a powerful combination that has the potential to bring about social and political change. And the art world – past and present – is littered with people who have used their creativity to make a statement, from Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (check out his 1951 painting Massacre in Korea, which criticises America’s intervention in the Korean war) and American contemporary painter Kara Walker, whose works explore race, gender and sexuality, to the anti-establishment messages of... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/3083333/hong-kongs-human-rights-arts-prize-powerful?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/3083333/hong-kongs-human-rights-arts-prize-powerful?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 08 May 2020 08:15:12 +0000 There is a long history of protest around the Olympic Games, experienced by residents who do not want the city to host them, the IOC and governments, as much as the athletes themselves. Tokyo 2020 is likely to be little different, despite the International Olympic Committee’s announcement of new guidelines banning athletes from making political, religious and ethnic demonstrations. The first response came from Global Athlete, a group looking to represent Olympians, on Twitter. It called out the... https://www.scmp.com/sport/other-sport/article/3046138/tokyo-2020-olympic-protests-are-part-games-history-despite-ioc?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/sport/other-sport/article/3046138/tokyo-2020-olympic-protests-are-part-games-history-despite-ioc?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 15 Jan 2020 03:52:30 +0000 The anti-government protests in Hong Kong will be the subject of two new projects by Chinese contemporary artist Ai Weiwei. In an email interview with the Post, the dissident artist and activist confirms he is working on a new production of Giacomo Puccini’s 1926 opera Turandot, and a documentary about the protests, which he says have had a profound effect on him. “These events have affected me emotionally and deepened my understanding of the politics of China and Hong Kong. I don’t see the Hong... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3025464/ai-weiwei-says-hong-kong-protests-part-global-freedom?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3025464/ai-weiwei-says-hong-kong-protests-part-global-freedom?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 03 Sep 2019 11:45:05 +0000 Two groups of German MPs recently cancelled trips to China due to visa restrictions, as Beijing stepped up diplomatic clashes with lawmakers in the European country that has been most vocal on Chinese human rights issues. The German parliament, the Bundestag, announced that its human rights committee was not allowed entry to China for a planned trip to Beijing, Tibet and the western region of Xinjiang, which had been scheduled for next month. German politicians blasted on China visit over Hong... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3023683/china-denies-visas-german-lawmakers-over-their-human-rights?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3023683/china-denies-visas-german-lawmakers-over-their-human-rights?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 21 Aug 2019 07:00:14 +0000 A Danish court on Wednesday ordered a Volkswagen dealer to pay Chinese artist Ai Weiwei more than €230,000 (US$258,000) in damages for using one of the artist’s works in an advert without authorisation. In 2017, SMC – the dealer – used a photo of a Volkswagen Polo parked in front of an Ai Weiwei art installation in Copenhagen to promote the launch of a new car on its website and in the dealer’s customer magazine. The work by the 61-year-old dissident artist, titled Soleil Levant, made up of... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3019057/chinese-artist-ai-weiwei-awarded-us258000-damages-volkswagen?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3019057/chinese-artist-ai-weiwei-awarded-us258000-damages-volkswagen?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 17 Jul 2019 15:02:49 +0000 Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei visited WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in a London prison hospital, saying that his health is “deteriorating” and urging Britain and other European nations to prevent his extradition to the United States. Berlin-based Ai said he visited the Australian national at Belmarsh prison alongside Assange’s father on Tuesday, one day before a British court is expected to hold a case management hearing on a US extradition request. “He is in the prison hospital and his... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3014109/chinese-dissident-artist-ai-weiwei-visits-julian-assange-prison-hospital?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3014109/chinese-dissident-artist-ai-weiwei-visits-julian-assange-prison-hospital?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 11 Jun 2019 19:32:02 +0000 A Chinese cartoonist whose anonymous political satire earned him both comparisons with Banksy and the wrath of Beijing has outed himself as a former law school student who became politicised after watching a Tiananmen Square documentary in a dorm room. Badiucao, whose subversive pieces regularly mock President Xi Jinping, has revealed his face and his personal story for the first time in the hope it will help protect him from the Chinese authorities. He says he and his family have been under... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3013116/cartoonist-badiucao-chinas-banksy-drops-his-mask-mark-30th?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3013116/cartoonist-badiucao-chinas-banksy-drops-his-mask-mark-30th?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 04 Jun 2019 17:53:15 +0000 Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has unveiled a series of portraits made with around one million Lego blocks, depicting 43 Mexican students who were abducted and apparently massacred in 2014. The dissident artist, who was detained by China’s communist government in 2011, says he made the piece as a commentary on the students’ case, an unsolved crime that triggered an international outcry and continues to haunt Mexico. “Forget about being an artist, I am a human being, just like you, and if you hear... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3005898/chinese-artist-ai-weiwei-creates-lego-portraits-mexicos-43?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3005898/chinese-artist-ai-weiwei-creates-lego-portraits-mexicos-43?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 13 Apr 2019 15:00:06 +0000 Ai Weiwei, the famous Chinese dissident artist, has never had any major exhibition in Los Angeles despite living in the US between 1981 and 1993. Now, he can be seen everywhere at once. The 61-year-old artist has three exhibitions showing his works simultaneously in LA – at the United Talent Agency (UTA) Artist Space in Beverly Hills, Jeffrey Deitch gallery and the Marciano Art Foundation. Ai’s shows in California are his first after leaving China three years ago. After Chinese authorities... https://www.scmp.com/arts/chinese-artist-ai-weiwei-takes-over-los-angeles-3-exhibitions/article/2170201?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/arts/chinese-artist-ai-weiwei-takes-over-los-angeles-3-exhibitions/article/2170201?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 25 Oct 2018 10:15:00 +0000 Largely due to his activism and outspokenness, Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei has found a level of international fame and esteem that – with the exception of, perhaps, Banksy – has eluded even his most successful artistic peers. The 61-year-old not only musters a following in the “serious” art world but is also embraced by a wider fan base who may have never set foot in a gallery. Inside Ai Weiwei’s Beijing studio where art will be lost to bulldozers Ai should have found a natural home in... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/2169140/three-exhibitions-ai-weiwei-arrives-los-angeles-arts-scene?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/2169140/three-exhibitions-ai-weiwei-arrives-los-angeles-arts-scene?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 21 Oct 2018 14:30:45 +0000 Some of the works Ai Weiwei had stored at his Beijing studio would not escape the wrecking ball, an assistant to the dissident Chinese artist said on Monday, three days after demolition crews began tearing it down. Ai’s staff were racing against the clock to save what they could of the works at the exiled artist’s studio in the Zuo You Arts Compound on the outskirts of the Chinese capital, where dozens of buildings on a 4,000 square metre site have been reduced to rubble. The front gates of some... https://www.scmp.com/culture/arts-entertainment/article/2158500/some-ai-weiwei-art-will-be-lost-wrecking-ball-artists?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/arts-entertainment/article/2158500/some-ai-weiwei-art-will-be-lost-wrecking-ball-artists?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 06 Aug 2018 10:18:37 +0000 The Beijing studio of China's most famous modern artist is being torn down, as his team struggles to remove artworks from the former car parts factory in the face of China’s latest forced demolition. Ai Weiwei, 60, has been a vocal campaigner on human rights abuses in China and the global refugee crisis. Since last Saturday, the dissident artist has been posting on his Instagram page pictures and videos of his studio on the outskirts of Beijing being razed. The videos showed an... https://www.scmp.com/arts/chinese-artist-ai-weiweis-beijing-studio-torn-down-forced-demolition/article/2158450?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/arts/chinese-artist-ai-weiweis-beijing-studio-torn-down-forced-demolition/article/2158450?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 06 Aug 2018 09:45:15 +0000 Wrecking crews demolished Ai Weiwei’s studio in Beijing without warning, the artist and activist said on social media. Ai, who is one of China’s best-known artists and government critics, posted a series of videos Saturday showing the crews knocking down the interior and exterior, first breaking windows and then walls as the building turned into a pile of dust and rubble. The artist raised the alarm on Friday that his famous studio “zuo you” was being flattened and that he had received no... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/2158304/chinese-activist-ai-weiwei-says-his-art-studio-was-demolished-without?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/2158304/chinese-activist-ai-weiwei-says-his-art-studio-was-demolished-without?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 04 Aug 2018 18:27:41 +0000 Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has carved a career out of controversy and activism, the dissident artist’s works that touch on subjects from human rights to corruption often raising the ire of the Chinese government. Now the Berlin-based artist is getting his hands dirty for another cause. His latest passion project is all about the pachyderm, more specifically Myanmar’s “jobless” working elephants. Last week Ai Weiwei visited several elephant camps in the country as part of a mission with animal... https://www.scmp.com/culture/arts-entertainment/article/2154810/chinese-activist-artist-ai-weiwei-visits-elephant-camps?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/arts-entertainment/article/2154810/chinese-activist-artist-ai-weiwei-visits-elephant-camps?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 11 Jul 2018 10:15:47 +0000 Are bodies of Chinese prisoners really on show at an exhibition in Sydney? That’s what protesters claim is the case with Real Bodies, a show in the Australian city’s Byron Kennedy Hall that features bodies and anatomical specimens that “have been respectfully preserved to explore the complex inner workings of the human form in a refreshing and thought-provoking style”, according to the exhibition’s website. The protesters – a group of academics and human rights campaigners – are urging the... https://www.scmp.com/culture/arts-entertainment/article/2143242/are-dead-bodies-chinese-prisoners-show-sydney-plus-five?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/arts-entertainment/article/2143242/are-dead-bodies-chinese-prisoners-show-sydney-plus-five?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 25 Apr 2018 06:15:41 +0000 Daniel Tobin, creative director and co-founder of art and design studio Urban Art Projects (UAP), says: “It was a crazy project to take on.” He’s reminiscing about a piece by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman that UAP helped make. A cheeky wink to the battleship which once occupied the playscape's site, ‘Kraken’, by Florentijn Hofman, provides an inclusive and imaginative space for families to explore. The work is a reference to the legendary giant sea monster of the same name, which has a... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/tech-design/article/2124951/ai-weiwei-zheng-lu-meet-uap-dream-builders-bringing-art?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/tech-design/article/2124951/ai-weiwei-zheng-lu-meet-uap-dream-builders-bringing-art?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 19 Dec 2017 10:22:29 +0000 Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has always had big ideas, and now he has the whole of New York to act as his canvas. “Good Fences Make Good Neighbors”, a sprawling exhibition with 300 works of art organised by New York’s Public Art Fund, features three big sculptural installations – including one in the city’s historic Washington Square Park – as well as site-specific installations in Lower Manhattan, and artistic interventions in bus shelters in Brooklyn, Harlem and the Bronx. Ai Weiwei attacks latest... https://www.scmp.com/culture/arts-entertainment/article/2115200/chinese-artist-ai-weiwei-importance-trump-era-his-art?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/arts-entertainment/article/2115200/chinese-artist-ai-weiwei-importance-trump-era-his-art?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 14 Oct 2017 10:02:56 +0000 An enormous exhibition by the activist Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, designed to draw attention to the world’s refugee crisis, is set to open to the public at some 300 sites around New York City. “Good Fences Make Good Neighbours”, presented by the Public Art Fund, will run from Thursday until February 11. A global trend of “trying to separate us by colour, race, religion, nationality” is a blow “against freedom, against humanity”, Ai said at a Manhattan press conference on Tuesday. “That’s why I... https://www.scmp.com/culture/arts-entertainment/article/2114805/chinese-artist-ai-weiwei-mounts-immigration-themed?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/arts-entertainment/article/2114805/chinese-artist-ai-weiwei-mounts-immigration-themed?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 10 Oct 2017 19:00:30 +0000 Ai Weiwei denounced China’s crackdown on lawyers and free speech on Wednesday adding that he had little hope that the upcoming Communist Party Congress would lead to more freedoms. The dissident artist spoke while inaugurating an exhibition in the Swiss city of Lausanne that includes some of his political works symbolising repression. “They are not accepting what we call common values such as democracy and freedom of speech and the freedom of religious practice and independence of the press or... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2112184/ai-weiwei-attacks-latest-chinese-crackdown-free-speech?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2112184/ai-weiwei-attacks-latest-chinese-crackdown-free-speech?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 21 Sep 2017 05:45:15 +0000 Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei on Thursday encouraged people across the world to challenge their leaders, including US President Donald Trump, in order to fend off what he said are threats to basic human values posed by governments. In Israel for the opening of his first exhibition in the Mideast country, the controversial artist, whose work often deals with the grim side of human nature, said people are locked in an almost permanent battle with their leaders and governments. “Trump himself... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/2096588/trump-has-be-challenged-says-chinese-dissident-artist-ai-weiwei?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/2096588/trump-has-be-challenged-says-chinese-dissident-artist-ai-weiwei?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 02 Jun 2017 01:12:35 +0000 Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei has ridiculed the “one country, two systems” principle after saying HSBC refused him a bank account at the bank’s Hong Kong headquarters on Tuesday. In an Instagram post, the 59-year-old critic of the Chinese government said: “I’m in Hong Kong, trying to open an account at HSBC. My request was refused due to a ‘commercial decision’ from the headquarter (sic). This has not happened to me in Beijing. Maybe ‘one country, one system’ is better.” The social media... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2088780/one-country-one-system-chinese-artist-ai-weiwei?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2088780/one-country-one-system-chinese-artist-ai-weiwei?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 19 Apr 2017 02:05:01 +0000 Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei on Thursday slammed “shameful” politicians who ignore refugees as he launched a giant art installation centred on their fate at the National Gallery in Prague. Called Law of the Journey, the show features a stylised 70-metre-long inflatable boat carrying 258 oversize refugee figures. A tribute to the thousands who have drowned crossing the Mediterranean, the piece is Ai’s biggest-ever installation. It will be on display until the end of the year. “My message is... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/2079816/chinese-artist-ai-weiweis-latest-work-targets-shameful-response?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/2079816/chinese-artist-ai-weiweis-latest-work-targets-shameful-response?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 17 Mar 2017 04:12:43 +0000 Ai Weiwei edited by Hans Werner Holzwarth Taschen 4/5 stars Despite – or perhaps because of – the Communist Party’s best efforts to have him silenced, Ai Weiwei remains the most famous and influential Chinese artist alive today. Ai, who helped design the National Stadium for the Beijing Olympics in 2008, spectacularly fell out of favour with China’s rulers for launching a “citizen’s investigation” after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, but in the years since his star has risen internationally, with... https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/1942571/book-review-ai-weiweis-provocative-career-captured-mammoth-taschen?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/1942571/book-review-ai-weiweis-provocative-career-captured-mammoth-taschen?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 09 May 2016 03:45:30 +0000 Lego has dropped restrictions on bulk orders after it was accused of censoring dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei when it refused to sell him toy bricks for a new project. The Danish toy company faced a media storm for denying Ai, known for his criticism of China’s rights record, the bricks in October. Lego said at the time it had a long-running policy of not fulfilling bulk orders or donating bricks if they knew they would be used as part of a “political agenda”. READ MORE: Chinese artist Ai... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/1900979/lego-changes-policy-bulk-orders-after-toy-company-censored?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/1900979/lego-changes-policy-bulk-orders-after-toy-company-censored?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 13 Jan 2016 10:45:30 +0000 Dissident artist Ai Weiwei said he believes his activism is helping to change China and the price he has paid for speaking out was worth it. Ai, in Melbourne for a new exhibition of his work at the National Gallery of Victoria, with human rights and politics at its core, said on Thursday someone had to make a sacrifice and take a stand against injustice. READ MORE: Bugging out: The lines that Ai Weiwei still cannot cross in China, after artist finds listening devices hidden in Beijing... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/1889231/my-political-activism-helping-efforts-change-china-says?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/1889231/my-political-activism-helping-efforts-change-china-says?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 10 Dec 2015 06:10:32 +0000