Ai Weiwei - Wikipedia. Ai Weiwei (Chinese: 艾未未; pinyin: Ài Wèiwèi,  English pronunciation (help·info); born 2. August 1. 95. 7 in Beijing) is a Chinese contemporary artist and activist. His father's (Ai Qing) original surname was written Jiang (蔣).[1][2][3] Ai collaborated with Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron as the artistic consultant on the Beijing National Stadium for the 2.

Ai Weiwei (Chinese: 艾未未; pinyin: Ài Wèiwèi, English pronunciation (help · info); born 28 August 1957 in Beijing) is a Chinese contemporary artist and activist.

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Olympics.[4] As a political activist, he has been highly and openly critical of the Chinese Government's stance on democracy and human rights. He has investigated government corruption and cover- ups, in particular the Sichuan schools corruption scandal following the collapse of so- called "tofu- dreg schools" in the 2. Sichuan earthquake.[5] In 2. Beijing Capital International Airport on 3 April, he was held for 8. Re: publica, 2. 01. Ai Weiwei. Early life and work[edit]Ai's father was the Chinese poet Ai Qing,[7] who was denounced during the Anti- Rightist Movement.

In 1. 95. 8, the family was sent to a labour camp in Beidahuang, Heilongjiang, when Ai was one year old. They were subsequently exiled to Shihezi, Xinjiang in 1. Upon Mao Zedong's death and the end of the Cultural Revolution, the family returned to Beijing in 1. In 1. 97. 8, Ai enrolled in the Beijing Film Academy and studied animation.[9] In 1. Stars", together with Ma Desheng, Wang Keping, Huang Rui, Li Shuang, Ah Cheng and Qu Leilei.

The group disbanded in 1. Ai participated in regular Stars group shows, The Stars: Ten Years, 1. Hanart Gallery, Hong Kong and Taipei), and a retrospective exhibition in Beijing in 2. Origin Point (Today Art Museum, Beijing).[citation needed]Time in the U. S.[edit]. This raincoat has a hole near the waist which is covered with a condom.

The work is intended to describe the AIDS crisis as Ai saw it in New York City[1. From 1. 98. 1 to 1. United States. For the first few years, Ai lived in Philadelphia and San Francisco. He studied English at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Berkeley.[1. Later, he moved to New York City.[1. He studied briefly at Parsons School of Design.[1. Ai attended the Art Students League of New York from 1.

Bruce Dorfman, Knox Martin and Richard Pousette- Dart.[1. He later dropped out of school, and made a living out of drawing street portraits and working odd jobs. During this period, he gained exposure to the works of Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol, and Jasper Johns, and began creating conceptual art by altering readymade objects. Ai befriended beat poet Allen Ginsberg while living in New York, following a chance meeting at a poetry reading where Ginsberg read out several poems about China.

Ginsberg had travelled to China and met with Ai's father, the noted poet Ai Qing, and consequently Ginsberg and Ai became friends.[1. When he was living in the East Village (from 1.

Ai carried a camera with him all the time and would take pictures of his surroundings wherever he was. The resulting collection of photos were later selected and is now known as the New York Photographs.[1.

At the same time, Ai became fascinated by blackjack card games and frequented Atlantic City casinos. He is still regarded in gambling circles as a top tier professional blackjack player according to an article published on blackjackchamp. Returning from the U. S. to China[edit]In 1.

Ai returned to China after his father became ill.[2. He helped establish the experimental artists' Beijing East Village and co- published a series of three books about this new generation of artists with Chinese curator Feng Boyi: Black Cover Book (1. White Cover Book (1. Gray Cover Book (1. In 1. 99. 9, Ai moved to Caochangdi, in the northeast of Beijing, and built a studio house – his first architectural project. Due to his interest in architecture, he founded the architecture studio FAKE Design, in 2. In 2. 00. 0, he co- curated the art exhibition Fuck Off with curator Feng Boyi in Shanghai, China.[2.

Ai is married to artist Lu Qing,[2. Political activity and controversies[edit].

Ai Weiwei sculptures displayed by the Pulitzer Fountain on Fifth Avenue in New York. Internet activities[edit]In 2. Ai was invited to start blogging by Sina Weibo, the biggest internet platform in China. He posted his first blog on 1. November. For four years, he "turned out a steady stream of scathing social commentary, criticism of government policy, thoughts on art and architecture, and autobiographical writings."[2. The blog was shut down by Sina on 2. May 2. 00. 9. Ai then turned to Twitter and wrote prolifically on the platform, claiming at least eight hours online every day.

He wrote almost exclusively in Chinese using the account @aiww.[citation needed] As of 3. December 2. 01. 3, Ai has declared that he would stop tweeting but the account remains active in forms of retweets and Instagram posts.[2. Watch Something New Putlocker# there. Ai supported the Amnesty International petition for Iranian filmmaker Hossein Rajabian and his brother, musician Mehdi Rajabian, and released the news on his Twitter pages.[2. Citizens' Investigation on Sichuan earthquake student casualties[edit]Ten days after the 8.

Sichuan province on 1. May 2. 00. 8, Ai led a team to survey and film the post- quake conditions in various disaster zones. In response to the government's lack of transparency in revealing names of students who perished in the earthquake due to substandard school campus constructions, Ai recruited volunteers online and launched a "Citizens' Investigation" to compile names and information of the student victims. On 2. 0 March 2. 00. Citizens' Investigation" and wrote: "To remember the departed, to show concern for life, to take responsibility, and for the potential happiness of the survivors, we are initiating a "Citizens' Investigation." We will seek out the names of each departed child, and we will remember them."[2. As of 1. 4 April 2. Ai published the collected names as well as numerous articles documenting the investigation on his blog which was shut down by Chinese authorities in May 2.

He also posted his list of names of schoolchildren who died on the wall of his office at FAKE Design in Beijing.[3. Ai suffered headaches and claimed he had difficulty concentrating on his work since returning from Chengdu in August 2. Tan Zuoren, a fellow investigator of the shoddy construction and student casualties in the earthquake. On 1. 4 September 2. Ai was diagnosed to be suffering internal bleeding in a hospital in Munich, Germany, and the doctor arranged for emergency brain surgery.[3.

The cerebral hemorrhage is believed to be linked to the police attack.[3. According to the Financial Times, in an attempt to force Ai to leave the country, two accounts used by him had been hacked in a sophisticated attack on Google in China dubbed Operation Aurora, their contents read and copied; his bank accounts were investigated by state security agents who claimed he was under investigation for "unspecified suspected crimes".[3. Shanghai studio controversy[edit]In November 2. Ai was placed under house arrest by the Chinese police. He said this was to prevent the planned party marking the demolition of his newly built Shanghai studio.[3. The building was designed and built by Ai upon encouragement and persuasion from a "high official [from Shanghai]" as part of a new cultural area designated by Shanghai Municipal authorities; Ai would have used it as a studio and to teach architecture courses. But now Ai has been accused of erecting the structure without the necessary planning permission and a demolition notice has been ordered, even though, Ai said, officials had been extremely enthusiastic, and the entire application and planning process was "under government supervision".

According to Ai, a number of artists were invited to build new studios in this area of Shanghai because officials wanted to create a cultural area.[3. On 3 November 2. 01. Ai said the government had informed him two months earlier that the newly completed studio would be knocked down because it was illegal.