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It is one thing to own a dozen original “Zodiac Head” sculptures by the Chinese artist, dissident, and human-rights cause célèbre Ai Weiwei. It is quite another to live in a house partially designed by him. But such is the good fortune of two Columbia County art collectors, who six years ago commissioned the Swiss firm HHF Architects and its scruffily bearded collaborator to build them a home with a detached guesthouse and garage on a pastoral 40-acre plot upstate. — nymag.com
London's Serpentine Gallery just released plans for the 2012 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion designed by Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei. This summer's pavilion, the twelfth commission in the gallery’s annual series, will be open to the public from June 1 to October 14, 2012. — bustler.net
Let us know what you think about this year's pavilion design in the comment section below. You can also re-read reactions to the initial announcement of the design team here. View full entry
Directed by Ai Weiwei (China, 2012). Official Selection International Film Festival Rotterdam 2012.
Ordos 100 is a construction project curated by Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei. One hundred architects from 27 countries were chosen to participate and each design a 1000-square-meter villa to be built in a new community in Inner Mongolia. The 100 villas would be designed to fit a master plan designed by Ai Weiwei.
— youtube.com
The Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei collaboration – the 12th pavilion – breaks the mould of the sequence so far as the criterion for the commission had been for an architect not to have built in England. But Herzog & de Meuron are also deeply engaged in the art world, having built the Walker Art Centre in Minneapolis and the de Young Museum in San Francisco. They are currently working on art museums in New York, Miami and Kolkata. — ft.com
I am not stupid, you know. Of course I know what I am doing. — NYT
The controversial artist has already received more than 6,000 yuan ($958,000) from more than 22,200 people.
While many have sent money via post and the internet, other have resorted to rather unconventional methods -- folding bank notes into paper planes and throwing them into Ai's garden at night.
— cnn.com
Beijing is two cities. One is of power and of money. People don’t care who their neighbors are; they don’t trust you. The other city is one of desperation. — Newsweek
Beijing tells foreigners that they can understand the city, that we have the same sort of buildings: the Bird’s Nest, the CCTV tower. Officials who wear a suit and tie like you say we are the same and we can do business. But they deny us basic rights. You will see migrants’ schools... View full entry
It seems unlikely, however, that Mr Ai will be allowed to take up his post in Germany in the near-term. Speaking from his studio in Beijing, he said that he had accepted the position when it was offered two months ago, but that the conditions of his release from prison at the end of June stipulate he has to remain in the Chinese capital. — telegraph.co.uk
Mr Ai has already said he cannot talk to the media, and he is not allowed to leave Beijing without permission.
He is also reportedly banned from using the microblogging site Twitter. His account has been dormant since April.
— bbc.co.uk
Related: check out Archinect's first issue of our new zine, addressing the capture and release of Ai Weiwei View full entry
We're excited to announce the release of the first issue in the Archinect Zine! This is a collaboration between Archinect and our friend Christian Chaudhari's publishing initiative Friction House. Creator and producer of the Archinect Zine is Christian Chaudhari, LA-based architect, writer... View full entry
Chinese artist and government critic Ai Weiwei is to challenge a bill of more than 12m yuan ($1.9m, £1.2m) in unpaid taxes and fines, his wife told the BBC. — bbc.co.uk
Beijing police said they had released the 54-year-old "because of his good attitude in confessing his crimes" and a chronic illness, Xinhua news agency reported. — guardian.co.uk
Forget petitions: art professionals are showing their support for detained Chinese artist Ai Weiwei in increasingly creative ways. Last week, Milwaukee-based Mike Brenner shaved his head into a style reminiscent of Ai's outside the Milwaukee Art Museum as a show of support for the artist, who has been missing for over two months. — artinfo.com
It’s in no country’s interest to have such a renown and creative citizen behind bars. It is particularly awkward for China’s rulers to oppress the man who designed the venue for their coming out party. Moreover, in its quest to climb the economic value chain and provide its millions of new graduates with jobs, China is at a moment where it needs to embrace creativity, to innovate and to develop the arts, entertainment and other high-value sectors. — globalpost.com
FAT Lab member Greg Leuch’s browser plugins have been mainly whimsical (abolishing mentions of folks like Justin Bieber and Charlie Sheen), but now, the developer has gone political with the release of China Blocker. It serves as a protest against the detainment of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. — mashable.com
