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He said it was impossible to re-register his Fake Cultural Development firm because officials had confiscated relevant documents.
The move follows his failed bid last week to challenge a tax evasion fine imposed on the firm.
— bbc.co.uk
Ai Weiwei: No. Beijing's greatest problem is that it never belongs to its people. Though it's a city of more than 10 million, people living here are like people living in a hotel. — Foreign Policy
Beijing's best-known dissident, architect, and creative provocateur tells Jonathan Landreth what's wrong with China's frenetic capital. View full entry
Alison Klayman gained unprecedented access to the charismatic artist, as well as his family and others close to him, while working as a journalist in Beijing. In the years she filmed, government authorities shut down Ai's blog, beat him up, bulldozed his newly built studio, and held him in secret detention--while Time Magazine named him a runner-up for 2011's Person of the Year... Klayman's compelling documentary portrait is the inside story of a passionate dissident for the digital age... — youtube.com
Ai Weiwei has never set foot inside the [Bird's Nest].
He told NPR that the stadium has become entirely divorced from ordinary people.
"We love this building, but we don't like the content they have put in, the kind of propaganda. They dissociated this building [from] citizens' celebration or happiness, [it's] not integrated with the city's life," Ai said. "So I told them I will never go to this building."
— npr.org
The attached photos were taken by me on a recent trip to Beijing. View full entry
Ai Weiwei will not attend the opening tomorrow of his architectural debut in London. One of the most important artists in the world today, and certainly the most famous Chinese artist, Ai has been under “city arrest” in Beijing since last year, unable to leave the Chinese capital and under constant surveillance from the Communist Party regime. He is accused of tax avoidance but many suspect his treatment is in retaliation for his outspoken and frequent criticism of the Chinese government. — London Evening Standard
Previously in the Archinect News: Serpentine Gallery Opens Pavilion (Without Ai Weiwei). View full entry
The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in London, designed by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron and Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, was presented to the press today before it will officially open to the public tomorrow, June 1. — bustler.net
Since Chinese officials had put Ai Weiwei on 'city arrest' in his hometown Beijing, he was not able to attend the ceremony together with his design collaborators Jaques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron. Weiwei was however allowed to send a recorded statement: “As an artist, I’m always very... View full entry
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
