Tag Archives: Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei: Courage on Trial in China

Reprinted from the New York Times 

BERLIN — In April 2011, I was kidnapped by the Chinese undercover police at a Beijing airport and detained at a secret location for 81 days. After my release, the government charged me with tax evasion, even though most of the questions during my confinement centered on my political activities. They demanded that I pay back taxes and a fine totaling $2.4 million, and when I asked why the shakedown, one official replied, “If we don’t penalize you, you won’t give us any peace.” Continue reading

China: Free Prominent Lawyer Pu Zhiqiang

Persecution of Outspoken Lawyers Mocks ‘Rule of Law’ Claims
Pu Zhiqiang2

Chinese human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang talks to media in Beijing in this July 20, 2012 picture. © 2012 Reuters

(New York) – Chinese authorities should drop all charges against prominent rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang and free him immediately. Pu is on trial before the Beijing Number 2 Intermediate People’s Court for alleged crimes of “inciting ethnic hatred” and “creating a disturbance” for seven microblog, or “Weibo,” posts that he published online between July 2011 and May 2014. Continue reading

Artist Ai Weiwei hits out over Lego ‘censorship’

25 October 2015

Artist Ai Weiwei has accused Lego of “censorship and discrimination” after the company refused to let him to use its bricks in a new exhibition.

Lego refused a bulk order for bricks that were to be used in a new artwork about political dissidents as part of an exhibition in Melbourne, Australia.

Toymaker Lego said it never sold directly to anyone Continue reading

Ai Weiwei finds ‘listening devices’ hidden in Beijing studio

Dissident artist posts images of suspected bugs on Instagram after returning to China following first overseas trip in four years
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Ai Weiwei during his visit to London. Photograph: Guy Bell/Rex

Sunday 4 October 2015 06.45 EDT Last modified on Sunday 4 October 2015 19.01 EDT

Dissident artist Ai Weiwei has returned to China after his first overseas trip in four years and discovered what appear to be listening devices hidden in his studio.

In a series of Instagram and Twitter posts on Sunday, the pop artist Continue reading

Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei set for huge London retrospective

Tue Sep 15, 2015 4:14pm EDT

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei poses for photographers during a photocall for his exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, Britain September 15, 2015. REUTERS/Neil Hall

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei poses for photographers during a photocall for his exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, Britain September 15, 2015. REUTERS/Neil Hall

LONDON | BY MICHAEL RODDY

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei poses for photographers during a photocall for his exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, Britain September 15, 2015.
REUTERS/NEIL HALL

Dissident artist Ai Weiwei has had his run-ins with Continue reading

Teasing Out Ai Weiwei’s Endgame, After China Lifts a Travel Ban

By DIDI KIRSTEN TATLOW AUGUST 12, 2015 5:00 PM August 12, 2015 5:00 pm
12SINO-LETTER-tmagArticleAi Weiwei in his workshop in Berlin last week, among stools that were featured in his 2014 show “Evidence” at the Martin-Gropius-Bau exhibition hall.Credit Michael Kappeler/European Pressphoto Agency
‘‘Silence, exile and cunning’’ was James Joyce’s formula for the artist to survive in a treacherous world.

The Chinese artist Ai Weiwei seems to be trying something different.

For one thing, Mr. Ai doesn’t want exile, he told the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper in Germany, shortly after the Chinese authorities lifted the ban on his travel, Continue reading

UK denies Ai Weiwei full business visa based on disputed ‘criminal’ history

British embassy officials say celebrated Chinese artist failed to declare his record on application – but supporters say he was never actually charged with a crime
ca46adaf-5e9d-48dd-9b09-f5da20d4887f-bestSizeAvailableAi Weiwei with his recently returned passport. Photograph: Ai Weiwei/EPA
Tom Phillips in Beijing

Thursday 30 July 2015 02.52 EDT Last modified on Thursday 30 July 2015 02.57 EDT

The dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has accused British authorities of turning their backs on human rights defenders after UK immigration officials rejected his application Continue reading

Ai Weiwei Trades Politics for Subtlety in First Solo Exhibition in China

08sino-weiwei01-tmagArticleBy JUNE 8, 2015 8:37 AM June 8, 2015 8:37 am

The installation of an ancestral hall from Jiangxi Province in adjoining galleries forms part of Ai Weiwei’s exhibition.Credit Oak Taylor-Smith

Barred since 2011 from traveling outside his home country, the artist Ai Weiwei has become a master of what might be called “remote exhibition-making” — Continue reading