Ai Weiwei and Pussy Riot’s Nadia Tolokonnikova at Pauly Saal, Berlin. Image courtesy of Ai's Instagram

Look who Ai Weiwei hung out with at the weekend

Film stars, politicians, and fellow artists have all welcomed Ai upon his recent arrival in the German capital

Ai Weiwei was granted a German visa towards the end of last month, just four days after the Chinese government returned his passport, and he’s wasted little time in taking advantage of his newfound freedom.

He flew into Munich on 30 July, underwent a number of a medical check-up relating to the head injuries he sustained in 2009 at the hands of Chinese police, before travelling on to Berlin to discuss the offer of a visiting professorship at the University of the Arts.

The city’s mayor Michael Müller has welcomed Ai, as have many within its artistic community. On Saturday, over food and drinks at Berlin’s Pauly Saal restaurant, he met with fellow artist and dissident, Nadia Tolokonnikova from Pussy Riot, as well as the actor Daniel Brühl. The trio were brought together via by the philanthropic arts organisation Cinema for Peace.

Ai with Daniel Brühl at Pauly Saal, Berlin. Image courtesy of Ai's Instagram

Weiwei has also found time to hang out with Berlin-based artist Olafur Eliasson, the Pulitzer Prize winning The New York Times journalist Ian Johnson, and catch Patti Smith perform her 1975 album Horses in full at the city’s Tempodrom music venue.

Germany was an obvious first stop for for Ai. The artist represented Germany at the 2013 Venice Biennale and his six-year-old son Ai Lao lives in the capital. However, as Ai tells Der Spiegel, “I have only been here for a couple of days and I'm already asking myself: What should I do now?"

Ai Weiwei, Olafur Eliasson and Ai Lao. Image courtesy of Ai Weiwei's Instagram

Among his few firm plans is a visit to Melbourne, where his works will be shown alongside Andy Warhol’s for the first time – an artist Ai greatly admires.

“Just like me, he had this desperate urge to constantly communicate about everything," Ai explains. Let’s hope Weiwei’s new freedoms will allow him to communicate a little more effectively from now on.

To understand Ai’s life and work get a copy of our monograph; for more on his greatest influence consider our Warhol books; for more on Pussy Riot and likeminded artists consider our new book, Visual Impact; for more on Olafur Eliasson buy his monograph; and if you want to know more about Pauly Saal read this extract from our Berlin Wallpaper guide.

Ai WeiweiSurvey by Karen Smith, Interview by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Focus by Bernard Fibicher

Price T45.00

Ai Weiwei (b. 1957) is truly an artist for the twenty-first century. In his sculptures he refashions artefacts and antiques into surprising, sometimes monumental constructions such as Template (2007): hundreds of wooden doors and windows taken from demolished Ming and Qing dynasty temples and arranged into a massive outdoor sculpture. As much as these materials look to the past, they also speak of the present, because never before (and probably never again) have they been available in such abundance. Like his benches carved from centuries-old temple beams, Template is a sly commentary on the speed with which China's building boom is obliterating its past. (When Template collapsed in a rainstorm two weeks after its unveiling at Documenta 12, the artist embraced its demise as a clever artistic twist.)

In China today, making art that's critical of current cultural and economic policies is not a particularly safe career move. But Ai's father, the poet Ai Qing, walked a similar path, absorbing European avant-garde styles while studying in 1930s Paris and later standing by them in the face of Communist opposition, a move that eventually led to his exile to the distant provincial town where his son Weiwei came to be born and raised. In the late 1970s Ai Weiwei moved to Beijing, banding together with other pro-democracy artists in a loose collective known as the Stars Group. In 1981, following government retaliation against one of their exhibitions, Ai moved to New York, where he attended art school and lived the life of the bohemian for twelve years, his East Village apartment serving as a base for countless visiting Chinese artists. When his father became ill in 1993 Ai returned to China, settling in Beijing and finally taking up his art career in earnest.

Weiwei's artistic forebears belong primarily to the Western modernist avant-garde (Duchamp and Beuys are particularly relevant). But Ai has equally and increasingly been influenced by modernist architecture and contemporary urban planning, citing the need for an ideal for living in a country where runaway economic development has shown little regard for the everyday life of the individual. In stark contrast to the glass-and-steel high-rises going up around Beijing, the art galleries, ateliers and homes Ai designs are boxy and modest, made from brick and other vernacular materials. Their resolution of Eastern and Western styles is a fitting parallel to his antique readymade sculptures.

At a time when the West is finally discovering Chinese contemporary art, Ai is one of the few to have transcended the label 'Chinese artist'. In part thanks to his gallery Urs Meile (Lucerne and Beijing), Ai has won the support of strong European collectors. His work is increasingly being shown at major venues around the world (Kunsthalle Bern, Kunsthaus Graz, Tate Liverpool) and included in major international exhibitions (the Moscow Biennial, the Guangzhou Triennale, Documenta). A complex, multi-faceted artist, Ai is poised to make a deep impact on contemporary art far beyond China's borders.

In the interview Hans Ulrich Obrist discusses Ai Weiwei’s life and motivations, his childhood in a rural province close to the Russian border, his underground political work, his move to New York in the 80s and consequent return to China in the 90s, and his break within the art world.

Karen Smith’s survey examines the evolution of Ai Weiwei’s work from the early paintings, drawings, and sculptures pieces through his most recent installations and architectural work, including the cotton-made sculpture World Map (Biennale of Sydney, 2006), the wooden doors and windows structure Template (Documenta 12, 2007) and his collaboration with the Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron for the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Bernard Fibicher focuses on Working Progress (Fountain of Light) (2007), a site-specific sculpture for Tate Liverpool inspired by Tatlin’s Monument to the Third International (1919) and that takes the form of a spectacular chandelier.

Specifications:

Format: Paperback
Size: 290 × 250 mm (11 3/8 × 9 7/8 in)
Pages: 160 pp
Illustrations: 200 illustrations
ISBN: 9780714848891

Karen Smith is a curator and writer based in Beijing.

Hans Ulrich Obrist is Co-Director of Exhibitions and Programmes and Director of International Projects at the Serpentine Gallery, London.

Bernard Fibicher is Director of the Musée Cantonal des Beaux Art in Lausanne.

On the Contemporary Artists Series

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"Gives the reader the impression of a personal encounter with the artists. Apart from the writing which is lucid and illuminating, it is undoubtedly the wealth of lavish illustrations which makes looking at these books a satisfying entertainment."—The Art Book