Years prior to his departure from his home country, Ai famously consulted on the design of the venue hosting Friday night's opening ceremony: The Beijing National Stadium, or "Bird's Nest."
But the artist distanced himself from the project and criticized China's hosting of the Olympics ahead of the opening ceremony, believing it to be a propaganda tool at odds with what he felt were the oppressive realities of life in the country.
— CNN
Ai Weiwei originally conceived of the stadium as an inspirational structure that carried a message to China and the rest of the world about the potential for democracy within his home country, but the still-in-exile artist now says that the symbolic uses of the building are being warped into an instrument of state power.
Weiwei has been reiterating the same criticisms of the project he jointly designed with Herzog & de Meuron for over a decade, lamenting the IOC’s penchant for “standing next to authoritarians” and stating that the country “has gone backwards” in terms of its human rights record since its completion fourteen years ago. He was also quick to compare the misuse of his architectural output to the CCP’s presentation of his father’s legacy as a nationalistic poet.
“As an architect, my goal was the same as other architects, that is, to design it as perfectly as possible,” Weiwei told The Associated Press in a recent email statement. “The way it was used afterwards went in the opposite direction from our ideals. We had hoped that our architecture could be a symbol of freedom and openness and represent optimism and a positive force, which was very different from how it was used as a promotional tool in the end.”
6 Comments
Didn't even know he has anything to do with it until he brought it up again.
As a Chinese, I find this guy really annoying. He's not even that famous in China, I couldn't tell you his name in Chinese. He's doing all these things for fame. He's taking advantage of the White savior complex.
People like him or Yeonmi Park exaggerated things for money and fame. (Google "Yeonmi Park lies") I feel like western media are helping them not for democracy, but to paint a picture of the evil foreign powers.
Not saying things are perfect in China, but don't trust everything he says.
Let me put it this way, it's wrong to plant evidence on the mafia boss even if we all want him behind bars.
What?
"I couldn't tell you his name in Chinese."
It's 艾未未. Is yours 五毛?
Nice, the PRC Bots have infiltrated Archinect too.
Chinese Communist Party = horrible
The vast, vast majority of hard working, Chinese people = great
Democratc and Republican parties = horrible.
The majority of US citizens, not so much.
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.