Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei on Q

highway way this is gian in Toronto hello hello they go away thank you so much for doing this well you're welcome way it's good to speak to you again the last time we spoke your your movements were restricted you were still apparently under some kind of investigation by Chinese authorities what is your situation now now they kinda leave me alone but they never returned my passport to me and they try not to talk to me even I make a phone call or they never answer my phone call do you still have to pretty much stay at home or are you free to travel within within Beijing I I I can travel outside waiting now but of course there's always secret police following in the airport or in the hotel when when we talked last last year you described feeling angry and frustrated about your situation you said things felt very dark do you still feel that way I think us toward my self personally it's getting more freedom but the whole situation in China is still very messy and the very confused and then and how would you describe your daily life what's a daily day like for you now oh well ira morning I wake up about seven six or seven o'clock I would immediately get home internet which I cannot use China domestic internet so I have to so call to Clem over the creative fire wall and get on Twitter so I can see news or to talk to Teeter fans to discuss current situation then but nine o'clock my colleague would come we would discuss about our shows publication or documentary films you know we were trying to make and for many many years and in the afternoon I would too I would go to park with my son and spend time with him but the evening I would come back to the office and get hung internet again that's my everyday schedule in order to express yourself you need a reason and and the reason is to express yourself yes it become more too after i right that that was a 2005 i was still very frustrated about how to use the new technology Internet to integrate us important tool for artistic expression and also the con involvement bring me into more social concerns well I'm very I'm very happy too pleased to hear that that you're you're okay you're speaking to us what you spoke to us at at some risk last year let's talk of jump into talking about your artwork it it seems like despite the challenges of your situation you're still very active creatively you made quite a stir with your show at the venice biennale this year the series of dioramas you made depicting scenes from the 81 days you spent in a Chinese prison in 2011 way what were you trying to express about your experience in prison with that work on after I was released so many people have porosity about my condition during that that had detention and it's very hard to explain so I looked through in history in China China China's history very a few accountable images or writings about the details of the condition so I also is very difficult for me to explain that kind of experience as artists I automatically synced to make a sculpture to to really trying to make us precise as possible for the memory and the pool of people and who has curiosity to see the condition I think that that's worth to try but it's very difficult because the the condition of my release is clearly states I can never tell anybody about the secret detention and and also to make a large sculpture like that it takes a lot of carefulness we have to do it secretly and but after almost two years of struggle we made of made this happen how much is is creating that kind of our work about explaining what you went through as you've just explained and how much of it is about coping with the memories that may haunt you some some sort of therapeutic or cathartic kind of release I think it works on both ways first you have to precisely and 22 exam the condition or to memorize to record all the details and which I spent eighty one days just trying to remember and measure everything and also it takes a long time for anybody has been mistreated or or has been putting a very difficult situation through state judicial system and to really overcome and to have this kinda therapy to to readjust their their understanding under their view about the world and which is very difficult i see many many people after their release they can never really come back to normal life again because this is just too traumatic experience which has nothing related to ordinary life or our common sense or logical or judgment or our sense of right or wrong and you do you have any do you have any sense of a normal life now i have a much better i I take me already two over two years to hanging in the park to to see the nature and to find you know those insects in the grass with my son and trying to enjoy all those moment and you know it's hard hard job do you do you still feel haunted by moments of that 81 days in prison not as much Wow Chester released I would always have nightmares I become a more easy to get a tempered or angry and now I become a bit better well I guess I don't want to say it's a benefit but one of the upshots is that you create very powerful hard work and out of situations like this and some of that powerful artwork is now on display in canadaway this retrospective according to what marks the first time North American audiences have had a chance to see a large collection of your work in a single show it's a it's also a significant honor and in the art world what does getting this kind of recognition in North America mean to you I think us are has this is a very great for or two to see your work has been well received by the audience and I am very happy to know my work now receive a great hands Susie astok from The Canadian audience and I have to see thanks to them and also thanks to the Demi's aim the organizer and you know director they have the courage and made those effort what do you mean by they have the courage well we all see in the Western world or Europe or United States and they have more relationship with Chinese government today than ever because the economy because of the the business yes I I think many culture exchange has been shattered by those into those essential struggles and many in many areas people attend not to mention to the supporting follow those very basic values such as human rights freedom freedom of speech so I think every effort made toward that direction I think it is very valuable are you suggesting that in some way way way that that just presenting your artwork the exhibition is a political act of sorts I wouldn't say it's a political act but I would say certainly it and it does have a support for for the Justice anywhere is to support you know the justice and everywhere I think that's from Martin Luther King's original sinking and I think a human today so connected and all those values are shared more than ever so you know this is a total struggle it's interesting to have this exhibition which is it's quite stunning and it's it's interesting to happen in North America because in a way it's a return to a different home of yours huh and I want to ask you about some of the work that's included in this retrospective called according to what there are some photographs speaking of a second home of yours from the time you spent in New York City in the 1980s way how important was that time in your life in developing your art and philosophy on the time my spanien Yorker is I think it's very important in my life that was the time I chest survived with my family through the Cultural Revolution and that time China is like North Korean today so I managed to escape under to spend 12 years in quite a free style you know to stay and to some I mean this capital of the you know one of the capitals of Western culture and certainly you know the values or had the struggle or argument and the others are on related culture politics affect my my my view I think I'm very much impressed by this period of experience of course you return to China and a lot of your work reflects on China and this show this exhibition according to what includes some of your best known works including on the one hand a series of photos of you smashing Han Dynasty vases on the other for example large sculptures that use traditional Chinese woodworking techniques do you see your work as breaking with Chinese tradition or continuing it I think my work I use in Chinese culture sometimes the poly political situation or current conditions us already made and which give me a chance to rethink my position under two to make some kind of announcement or some kinda new expression out of it and which dealings where we come from a not how what kind of frustration we have today the show also includes photos from your series study in perspective these are quite provocative these photos show a close-up of your middle finger in the foreground effectively you know giving the finger to famous institutions and scenes of power like the White House the Eiffel Tower Tiananmen Square wait how do you sum up the message of that series do you mean it as a rejection of all authority all icons no I wouldn't say that you know we all have to live under some kind of other or are some kind system and but nevertheless the personal intention or attitude towards the power such as political and and economical or culture power structures which you know it shows my mind at least shows my concerns or my attention and I have to you know as an individual but especially as the artist the individual and I always have to sync my positions and to make a judgment and the 22 questioning the authority and at the same time of course the question you are our life for our existence you know they are we they always part of this kind of argument it's interesting because it's an angry gesture to give something the finger you know the White House but in a way it also strikes me as quite impotent I mean it it doesn't it's it's sort of passive in the sense that it's not going to actually change anything can you reflect on that I think that shows individual position toward any authority as an individual of course you know it's not always just angry but sometimes it's just a humor or a joke or are are to dismiss certain kind the tension I do that I think you know it's the only a gesture it's nothing so important it's just like anybody would take a photo in front of a building to to use as a memory right I got you but just with the middle finger raised did this side cousin you know it's only my life hands you know I wouldn't take my head I think it's boring but am I left and there's more tolerable well perhaps certainly in a more serious vein this show also includes the field of rebar you salvaged from buildings destroyed in the sichuan earthquake and in 2008 and a wall and scribe with the names of more than 5,000 children who died well you have to explain this to to audiences isn't in North America you took it upon yourself to research the names of the dead and memorialize them in art this would seem like a compassionate and a beautiful gesture this was one of the things that got you into trouble with Chinese authorities why was this such a threat to them on the first the valley Mia society is gone to trying to cover up any information and all the informations has been either distorted or are are to even waste wrought by the garment such as victims of the so-called natural disaster but we all know in two thousand 81 earthquake happened all the school building collapsed and the building next to it doesn't even clubs so that means the school I Bill de regarder and you know tofu construction and by asking those names to recognize those life and memorize it in a tutu asking for their name and birthday I want to bring up our social conscious about how to respect the life how to how to memorize those lost on solemn sorry the search engine spasm that's okay no problem and and because i was very active in the internet then i still can use a domestic internet by then so I I said you know as as a citizen you cannot always blame the government and that you can really take action just you know as a one person I think we can research and to go to the location talk to the parents to find out who is missing in the earthquake and I got a lot of support from the netizens so we organized the volunteers to go to the location and which is very difficult our team has been arrested over 40 times and then still be managing to find five thousand names it's kind of like miracle and I oppose all those names are internet which it's become a symbolic gesture to to question the authority or put them on trial to see how incapable or to see how morally there they're wrong or they are so corrupted just in many ways so that really made them very angry which cause you know some kinda they use even physical violence cause my brain surgery and later that's one of the reasons they try to to come me down to put me in a secretly defend me but in the course of that way you've become arguably the most prominent critic of the Chinese regime certainly within China do you think more Chinese artists and intellectuals should be speaking out the way you do I think people should speak out about their own rights and that's a choice come with them and it and it's going to help everybody else so intellectual not this is a very essential way to live through and but in the reality there's very few people even there to to to to act up for to really show their what's in their mind but they won't even the me as it because the government can arrest people only because you put a one sentence on internet or are one question or one or mark which they think is threatened to their authority you know they won't even allow your name to be mentioned as I understand why way and I have to tell you I have to tell you a story which is that the the martial arts movie star Jackie Chan was recently on my show he was sitting here in studio with me and we were having a good interview a good conversation I mentioned you and he claimed to not even know your name does that surprise you on that not surprise me he is obviously he's still playing in your show he knows me very well he's a very much pro garment actor and he's acted are so extremely towards the US you know to to to other side I was Authority which already become a la Pole humours actor he is in the public's view and you know I I asked him a few times you are you sure you don't know where he said I've never heard that name I don't know who that is does it bother you when you hear that well it bothers me when people like him which is very inferential not to immediate the truth and not to still scared of the search he has not really bothers me because he he's quite a while and he doesn't have to be like that do you ever worry your role as an activist is overshadowing your work as an artist that you become known more for as an activist and and that people will bypass the art along the way I think I love art I love poetry and the love to act in helping myself and other people and I wouldn't be so sorry if they don't call me artist and as long as I still have ability to to fight for justice you've paid a great personal price for your activism you've been detained you've been imprisoned you you had that surgery in your head after you a hit there are other critics of the regime like the Nobel Prize Peace Prize winner nusia Wow for instance who have been imprisoned for years why do you think the regime has allowed you to continue your work even with these restrictions every time one people ask me the same question I I don't really know i think you know i'm a very lawful person and oh what i did is my opening and under that's a beautiful artist to express his true feelings so if i have to pay some kind of price you know I'm ready for it and I think the our third he knows I you know I'm it's very hard to dealing situation like this meaning that I mean why don't they don't want them to do this but why don't they just imprison you and take you away like they would with Leah well I think I think even the are thority they are not just one person's heiress to a system if they have to do this to me they have to do this to meaning of of the people you know when I was arise which is like a like kinda earthquake for most people I shake a lot of people view and many of them because that they escaped they they turn to immigrated to the west because the the losses had a trust so for any kind authority even a surgeon like China can be quite brutal sometimes but still they don't want to be appeared to be like they're they're irrational or so you know I cannot speak for them but I hope they be more rational way you do pay a price for this what if you never get your passport back and this is how you have to live for the rest of your life would you say it has been worth it I think it's worth it and you know i will never treat my freedom with any kind other candle are our property and the freedom is in my mind and as a human I struggle and made my effort and I I would take for any kind of consequence if I don't who willing to take the consequence I think that kind of freedom is too cheap for me and I still remember when my father was exiled our very much difficult situation and my father will never know this Cultural Revolution would end he thought tells us you know he when he cleans the toilet he said I don't know who clean my toilet for past 60 years and why don't we just sinker we were born here and you know they and all our whole family supported him I think that's more naturalistic reaction and I mean realistically reaction hmm before I let you go I'll ask you one more question that way were the last time we spoke you said you believe that China could become a more open society but only if people would fight for it now you started this conversation today saying that you feel like you personally have a bit more freedom but you're still concerned for the country are you more hopeful or less hopeful than you were a year and a half ago for the future of China for future of China I'm very helpful can I have to survive and I have to make their own true struggle and for myself the situation now I don't really know because there's so many people get arrested in recent days it's so it's it's always an honor to get to speak to you I I thank you for making the time and for taking so much time with us tonight thank you I way we thank you so much bye bye bye bye

Channel: q on cbc

Views: 5,212

Rating: 4.8681316 out of 5

Keywords: cbc, jian ghomeshi, Ai Weiwei (Visual Artist), CBC Radio (Broadcast Producer), 艾未未

Id: asEMxQP3Ri8

Length: 29min 44sec (1784 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 04 2013