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A documentary film by internationally acclaimed Chinese artist Ai
Weiwei (born 1957), "Fairytale" chronicles the making of an
installation-cum-performance of the same name. In 2007, Ai Weiwei
invited 1001 Chinese citizens of varying ages and backgrounds to
travel to Kassel, Germany, for one week each, all expenses paid.
This 152-minute film describes the many challenges facing the
artist and his volunteers in coordinating the work
"Ai Weiwei: On the Table" surveys the full scope of Weiwei's
career, from his early days in 1980s New York to his present-day
status as the best-known and most influential Chinese artist in the
world. Work by this media-savvy activist calling for greater
freedom in China can now be found in leading contemporary art
museums and collections worldwide; the image of his taunting,
irreverent middle finger imposed atop touristy monuments and
landscape photos has become ubiquitous, his sunflower seed
installations iconic. This volume includes previously unseen new
work, as well as a range of key pieces from the past 35 years,
presented in a beautiful clothbound format. Ai Weiwei (born 1957)
spent his youth in exile, returning to Beijing at the end of the
Cultural Revolution in 1976. He lived in the US, mostly in New
York, from 1981 to 1993, and in the wake of his exposure to the
work of Warhol, Duchamp and Johns, began altering readymade objects
and creating conceptually driven art. In 2008 he was commissioned
as the artistic design consultant for the Beijing National Stadium
built for the Summer Olympics. The artist has openly criticized the
Chinese government and was famously incarcerated for 81 days in
2011 on no official charges.
Manifestos and immodest proposals from China's most famous artist
and activist, culled from his popular blog, shut down by Chinese
authorities in 2009. In 2006, even though he could barely type,
China's most famous artist started blogging. For more than three
years, Ai Weiwei turned out a steady stream of scathing social
commentary, criticism of government policy, thoughts on art and
architecture, and autobiographical writings. He wrote about the
Sichuan earthquake (and posted a list of the schoolchildren who
died because of the government's "tofu-dregs engineering"),
reminisced about Andy Warhol and the East Village art scene,
described the irony of being investigated for "fraud" by the
Ministry of Public Security, made a modest proposal for tax
collection. Then, on June 1, 2009, Chinese authorities shut down
the blog. This book offers a collection of Ai's notorious online
writings translated into English-the most complete, public
documentation of the original Chinese blog available in any
language. The New York Times called Ai "a figure of Warholian
celebrity." He is a leading figure on the international art scene,
a regular in museums and biennials, but in China he is a manifold
and controversial presence: artist, architect, curator, social
critic, justice-seeker. He was a consultant on the design of the
famous "Bird's Nest" stadium but called for an Olympic boycott; he
received a Chinese Contemporary Art "lifetime achievement award" in
2008 but was beaten by the police in connection with his "citizen
investigation" of earthquake casualties in 2009. Ai Weiwei's Blog
documents Ai's passion, his genius, his hubris, his righteous
anger, and his vision for China.
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