Ai Weiwei: Artist and Human Rights Champion | Brilliant Ideas Ep. 54

brilliant ideas powered by Hyundai Motor [Music] raised in exile during the Cultural Revolution I Weiwei is a man driven by his conscience an artist as much as he is an activist he uses sculpture installation film and even social media to speak about issues surrounding truth justice and human rights I was very important in terms of what he represents as a person who stands up for ideas if we look through the history of art the greatest artworks talk more about the human condition in the face of different situations and that's what we're is works do I remember gin gee-gee vu de portago blue toy giant usual to function built up had a sham Papa Tunde treaty oh he's placed himself at the center of global events and he's exhibited in some of the world's most prestigious venues he is one of the most prolific and provocative artists of our time I do think he is a skilled and sophisticated producer of objects and happenings who knows where the story ends really maybe he's also an attention seeker but he deals with themes that are quite universal things like human rights the government these resonate with people not just in China but across the world as artists my role in society is to express myself to share my sensitivities if I have the position and refuse to do so doesn't matter it called artists or or whatever it's it's just a mental corruption [Music] Athens Greece i Weiwei is here for a solo exhibition at the Cycladic museum dedicated to Greece's ancient cultures and like every public appearance he makes it's a media frenzy the exhibition features a handful of familiar works made with his signature use of wood marble and traditional objects as well as traditional techniques like these polyhedrons constructed using the joinery methods of the Ming Dynasty our res arts very interesting because in a way it's extremely classical from its technical proficiency from the forms the materials he works with the wood the porcelain the installations it's very very modernists in its values and inspired by the museum's celebrated collection of ancient Cycladic art are some new pieces such as this crowd-pleaser a cheeky Cycladic rendition of i Weiwei's infamous dropping a han dynasty urn from 1995 I were it was brought up by a generation under a government that suggested it would be good to destroy these things because they represented an old society that new China wanted to leave behind the fact that he does it of course is showing how ridiculous it was to want to destroy all of these things but he reforms it in a way that actually gives the work new meaning time and again you see him coming back to these things that are so specifically and so kind of wonderfully Chinese you know ceramics carpentry different forms of sculpture that he's able to kind of twist and play on in other ways it's an interesting metaphor for kind of how he how he sees China but in amongst the lighthearted works are some darker exhibits marble life boys and use gas canisters collected from the Macedonian border direct references to Europe's ongoing refugee crisis the location of the exhibition is no coincidence since early 2016 Iowa has been actively involved in the crisis campaigning and filming hundreds of hours of interviews with refugees in Greece and all over the world each day we'll see dozens of boat coming under the same kind of stories always very sad so that can be involved emotionally then gradually have become deeper because I want to do a documentary film so that made me one to over twenty thirty camps he's even moved his studio to the frontlines on the Greek island of Lesbos people always ask me why you're interested in refugee situation and if I sent back I am refugee [Music] i Weiwei was born in 1957 his father was a Ching a respected artist and poet who like many other intellectuals of the time was denounced as an enemy of the Communist Party i Weiwei grew up in labor camps with his father and lived in exile in the harsher climes of northern China until the death of Chairman Mao allowed him to return to Beijing in 1976 growing up in the Cultural Revolution was very strong impact on me being an artist my father he has to clean the public toilet and there you know it's most most hateful work even for villagers so everyday life is hep to dealing with this kind of discrimination or being pushed away or we described us another kind of human being and one I see those people I immediately have curiosity to see what's alike Walker and Giada so I mean she could be mean gonorrhea Lamar I mean not over you Fatah ha Santa vision de like three people reject any fashion freedom of speech human rights I relate to my early struggle or my families or the whole generations struggle in fighting for those basic rights so it made me understand how important I in which artists how strong their voice can be and how necessary how important those Warriors are for as long as the world has known of i Weiwei his commitment to human rights has never wavered almost 10 years ago he responded the same way to the sich one earthquake in China using his art and his influence to speak about the disaster over 70,000 people lost their life which is quite shocking so I've become very active online questioning about the structure of the buildings it should have such a a casualty and especially when I learned that there's thousands students disappeared under this and the state build schools so we start making investigation using his online influence i Weiwei collected over 5,000 names of the school children that perished in the earthquake names that the authorities had tried to conceal in 2009 he created an emotional tribute to the children covering the facade of the house Dirk winced in Munich with 9000 backpacks the authorities did not react kindly that same year he was beaten by the Chinese police pretending to testify in the investigation the authority strongly reacted to it the internet offered a possibility for people to communicate and to express himself and assuring information which shakes the foundation of the totalitarian society never bending in his opposition in 2011 after years of political agitation he was finally arrested and was detained for 81 days his passport was seized and he couldn't leave the country for four years waves of protests were held in his name around the world i Weiwei became an icon this is when you can see the impact that he has amongst the people who feel that he was standing up for injustice is you know if he didn't care about China he wouldn't stand up for these issues it's something he cares very much about which is why he's willing to put himself on the line as it were you know friend of mine told me well you have to be very careful now they call you activist which is not a favorite name for artists I told him I don't care you know I don't care what I really call me I do whatever I think I should do and I like to do and I think that's why coming up we meet i Weiwei as a young artist in New York and retrace his remarkable ascent to being an art world superstar talkies [Music] despite being better known as an activist Ai Weiwei has first and always been an artist in 1981 frustrated by the censorship in his country a 24 year old I Weiwei left China for New York City in search of greater freedoms to pursue art I Love New York so I still remember how I feel the moment suddenly you see a whole city with such energy and expression he as a young man yo you're completely sure even though he never completed art school in New York his time in the city introduced him to new ideas that would have a profound impact on his artistic sensibilities [Music] you know he has a number of influences but probably the biggest among them would be Duchamp boys and Warhol and he took different things from each of them but for more whole the idea that kind of when one is an artist everything one does is part of one's artistic not just persona but artistic practice in the 1980s he had his first and only exhibition in New York called old shoes safe sex echoing Marcel Duchamp in his use of found objects it was a way ways response to the panics surrounding aids at the time he had one exhibition in like 1985-86 which was the very Duchamp ian works and you know i think that it was really for him a process of absorbing influences and of looking at life and this is also a very much shown in the photography work that he did when he was there but apart from that one exhibition I Weiwei didn't do very much in New York right up to the day he returned to China in 1993 when his father was ill I think for him that was a tough period because it you know he says he came back without a degree a reputation or even a wife to show for his time abroad right and you know he's living with his mom again and his father was on his deathbed and it was quite I think it was quite a low low period for him look I'm Gia she sure I'm in this Johan scientist over the channel a trauma or for you for them from trauma or amplitude or tension watch it at heart the sukkah telecoil jaw she should eat your built into it no ma Joe Sanya lecture hall nobody eat anti-trump Ortega change later on tank room you dollar car then go far who toil far weekend on the journey get secret so it a easier to be on the ship cutter in China highway way became a driving force in the burgeoning avant-garde circle he pushed against censorship bringing the global discussion about contemporary art home through a series of underground magazines his rebellion culminated in a landmark exhibition in Shanghai in 2000 it featured some of the most provocative works from 46 local artists including his own infamous study of perspective series if we look bad still it's a very important show because it has all all the works not being censored which some are very critical works until today I don't think the show like this can happen by the late 2000s i Weiwei had become a major player in the international art world exhibiting at some of the most prestigious venues in the world even in the four years where he couldn't leave China a way way continued to be one of the world's most exhibited artists every year showing an average of at least ten solos outside China within art circles a way we were certainly you know a renowned artists before his detention but I think certainly for the common person his detention and arrest by the Chinese government has made him you know a real symbol you know and this is unintended probably by anyone maybe he's also an attention-seeker yeah but he deals with themes that are quite universal things like human rights the government the role of tradition within contemporary China these resonates with people not just in China but across the world [Music] after the break we visit a way Ray's first ever solo exhibition in China [Music] his artist and activist Ai Weiwei has had dozens of solo exhibitions worldwide but he's never had one in his own country China until 2015 while still banned from leaving China he decided to try his luck and organized his first solo exhibition in Beijing China is heavily censored society but the nura see well we cannot have our show so I contact two galleries that these two galleries are very brave they said yes we like to to have a real show for a long time spread over to galleries in Beijing's 798 art district the exhibition consisted of his classic reinterpretation of Chinese tradition from his collection of broken ceramic spouts to his dipping of old wooden artefacts in bright paint and in the very center of it all is an ancient temple from the late Ming Dynasty that I wear a lovingly salvaged and rebuilt within the gallery's walls I think it's a pretty interesting work people have argued that the doubling is a sense of a mirror of how we look at tradition there's actually many levels to this work one level is like just the sheer displacements you know bringing it in rebuilding it and then with parts that he added on you know he makes little comments you know he puts you know particularly sneak rrett he fits in certain parts work that were missing with his own parts that he created so he can he brings in all this all these ideas and perhaps you know I think that's what good art can do - oh is very special because this literally is my first show and also at the moment I was detained and a lot a lot of young people are eager to see what I'm always going to put up and that show was so tremendously popular because people feel is just crazy I will we can have a show here he's like it's peculiar but it's beautiful and special I think as a Chinese who exhibits for the first time in China after so many years it's good to see something else from him that is not pocketed I knew what he did the artists I want to wanted to contest the Chinese government's it's a nice change because it really shows there is something else in him really shines soon enough other galleries came knocking at the moment people realize that I can do exhibitions so they seen about a month I had a four or five shows and the Heritage was shocked but a bigger shock came shortly after after four years under China's travel ban Iowa got his passport back the police said was her next show came always pre announced to us it's okay that's a moment to give back my passport some have speculated that he got his passport returned because he chose to do shows that were far less political than his usual output I think there is a period where he believed in no compromise no matter what sort of damage that would bring Tim and I mean I think people thought he could have gotten his passport back years ago if he'd simply written a letter saying he needed to seek medical treatment abroad but you know he wasn't willing to do that because he would see having the passport as a basic human right which it is so I think a lot of us were a little bit surprised to see him able to show in Beijing suddenly and not just in one gallery but in four or five and then be to do a show that's basically devoid of political content I mean there's always a little bit of politics but certainly compared with all kinds of other work he's been doing lately this is a show that doesn't press those buttons in the same way he made that decision I don't think it's to be condemned and and it's a really good show from a political point of view the police will never see its political you know the vehicle can be very hidin but still it's very political work and I'm very happy I you know I made it through all those struggles and I never really trying to settle for Less I really put a strong work and especially when you should catch all your so-called hometown which many people aren't ready to look at it in September 2015 with his new passport he returned to London to open a major retrospective at the Royal Academy the first of his international exhibitions that he was able to attend in person in four years the retrospective featured some of his most iconic pieces and some of his most controversial including another haunting piece about the Sichuan earthquake all together bringing his journey as an artist and a champion of human rights full circle I'm a soldier la Chamba Tunde gontran t10 trophy food on a second canteen Tritton Liang yo filmed our Tabata is open competition comes in Champlin even on the pros idea tapas party to our central hydrogen adult a team sutrayana 120 digital sheet yet surrender and say hi tanners happy hope a change of the hot oven teacher women t know Matt Regan I remain fit on me with the country and all over but also we go to the Sun sir people think that all artists today in the contemporary world should be political in some ways but I think that way was a good example because what he recognizes is that actually political situation today can change tomorrow and if your art is only reacting against a political situation today then you have a very limited lifespan and it becomes another form of ideology if we look through the history of art you know the greatest artworks they talk more about the human condition in the face of different situations and that's what we're is works do there is still the question of him as an artist and I still do believe that the works back up the position I do think he is a skilled and sophisticated producer of objects and happenings who knows where the story ends really but I think it's a mistake to to completely right off his artistic persona or his artistic output because he is also so much better known now as a sort of activist figure who becomes famous in contemporary art is not entirely predictable you know um you know maybe it was partly luck but I do think he is a great artist such as artists I draw in society is to express myself and to share my sensitivities and to communicate with people so if I can do so I was income or very lucky one but if I do have the position and refuse to do so I will think how I'm totally corrupt it does matter it called artists or or whatever it's it's just a mental corruption I have no other choice as artists the situation changes me and I am always learned and ready to to be involved [Music] you [Music] brilliant ideas powered by Hyundai Motor

Channel: Bloomberg Markets and Finance

Views: 66,104

Rating: 4.8284316 out of 5

Keywords: Bloomberg, Ai Weiwei, China, art, artist, political art, Athens, Human Rights, Politics

Id: H8QAjQ1GS2U

Length: 24min 21sec (1461 seconds)

Published: Tue May 30 2017