(UPDATES click
HERE) Arrested yesterday Update:
ai weiwei artist arrested as chinese authorities stamp out jasmine revolutionexcerpt: "Mr. Ai, 53, the son of one of the country’s most beloved poets, is an internationally renowned artist, a documentary filmmaker and an architect who helped design the Olympic Bird’s Nest stadium in Beijing. ... he was taken away by uniformed officers ...at Beijing International Airport."
Ai Weiwei's own site is here
http://www.aiweiwei.com/(I read he is under
house arrest. Here we go again.)
A Must-watch: Here is the link to the story of the ups and downs of this very courageous artist:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/ai-wei-wei/ He has been investigating the poorly made schools that resulted in many children's deaths during the earthquake a couple years ago.
This brave man is challenging the Chinese dictatortate: with great talent and humor.
(when beaten by police, he even sends a picture kind of like this one but from his hospital bed, to the authorities:
Ai Weiwei 艾未未
"Ai Weiwei completed the 'Study in Perspective' series from 1995 to 2003 and captured his defiant middle finger in front of seats of political or cultural power in Paris, Washington DC, Berlin, Beijing and Hong Kong.Photo Courtesy of Ai Weiwei " Read more: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/ai-wei-wei/slideshow-ai-weiwei-art/#ixzz1IVjEYMGA
"He served as design consultant to Swiss architects Herzog & de Mueron for the 2008 Olympic Stadium in Beijing. He would later denounce the stadium and the Beijing games as the "false smile" of an authoritarian regime.Photo
Courtesy of Ai Weiwei"Chinese renowned artist: Ai Weiwei arrested by Chinese government
Traditional Chinese 艾未未
Simplified Chinese 艾未未
- Hanyu Pinyin Ài Wèiwèi
WIKI: "Ai Weiwei (born 1957) is a Chinese artist, activist, and philosopher, who is also active in architecture, curating, photography, film, and social and cultural criticism.[1][2] Ai collaborated with Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron as the artistic consultant on the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008 Olympics.[3] Besides showing his art he has been investigating in the corruption and cover-ups under the power of the government. He was particularly focused at exposing an alleged corruption scandal in the construction of Sichuan schools that collapsed during the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. He intensively uses the internet to communicate with people all over China, especially the young generation.[4] On April 3, 2011 Chinese police detained him at Beijing airport and his studio in the capital was sealed off in an apparent crackdown by the regime on activists and dissidents. "
" Life and work:His father was Chinese poet Ai Qing, who was denounced during the Cultural Revolution and in 1958 sent to a labor camp in Xinjiang with his wife, Gao Ying.[7] Ai Weiwei was one year old. In 1975 the family returned to Beijing.[8] Ai Weiwei is married to artist Lu Qing.[7]
In 1978, Ai enrolled in the Beijing Film Academy and attended school with Chinese directors Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou.[9] In 1978, he was one of the founders of the early avant garde art group the "Stars", together with Ma Desheng, Wang Keping, Huang Rui, Li Shuang, Zhong Acheng and Qu Leilei. In China the group subsequently disbanded in 1983.[10] Yet Ai Weiwei participated in regular Stars group shows, The Stars: Ten Years, 1989 (Hanart Gallery, Hong-Hong and Taipei), and a retrospective exhibition in Beijing in 2007: Origin Point (Today Art Museum, Beijing)."
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