in film Never Sorry by Alison Klayman, 2011, now showing in Paris, at Beaubourg, across from Centre Georges Pompidou
Black White Gray Cover Book China Art Archives Warehouse CAAW Fuck Off Feng Boyi Tsai Residence Jinhua Architecture Fountain of Light Digital Activism Fairytale Template Ordos 100 Sundflower Seeds State of things So Sorry According to What? Coca cola Vase Circle of Animals/ Zodiac heads Dropping the Urn cinema politic dissident activist authority China Mao Revolution media story Asia articles author art journal magazine museum gallery exhibit crafts clothing designer Paris fashion photo graph show cool mode style Europe France French China HongKong film review movie director actor video icon Group underground graffiti news performance
"There is no outdoor sport as graceful as throwing stones at a dictatorship..."
"Document the Process"
This film has a lot of cats in it. Forty to be exact. They live on Ai Weiwei's property.
At the beginning of the film, Ai Weiwei says,
"the difference between people and cats is that people close a door after opening it..."
Later on in the film, he goes on to complete the analogy by explaining that many of the police and government tend to react to situations in the way of animals.
They are reactionary, they push down any form of rebellion or complaint with no thought of their own actions, nor fear of the consequences.
In 2008, approximately 70, 000 people were killed in the Sichuan earthquake in China. A large number died due to poorly built government sponsored buildings. Such is the case of the "tofu-skin schools", as they have been dubbed in the media, where approximately 5,000 children died. These are official numbers, actually no one knows and some studies have shown that the figures should be doubled.* Activist Tan Zuoren started a victim's database with the parents of the children who died, but all his records were confiscated by the government. In 2009, he was detained on allegations of "subversion of state power".
Ai Weiwei and ten others, including celebrity musician Zuzhou Zuoxiao, travelled to Chengdu to testify at Zuoren's trial. The police woke up the entire group in the middle of the night. One policeman hit Ai Weiwei in the head with such force, that he needed surgery. Ai Weiwei immediately took a photo of himself with the police and had it posted directly on the Internet. Ai Weiwei was detained for 12 hours in his hotel room, just enough time to stop him from testifying. In the end, Tan Zuoren was sentenced to prison for five years.
"Three years in paris, Three years in a Chinese Prison?"
Ai Weiwei had only lived on this earth for one year when he was separated from his parents. His father, the celebrated poet Ai Qing, was sentenced to 19 years of hard labor, despite his devotion to the Communist Party. The film features interviews of Gao Ying, his wife and the mother of Ai Weiwei, who went with her husband. This is not the first time Ai Qing, the father, was imprisoned; he went to prison for three years after studying abroad in Paris for the same number of years. He was sentenced by Chiang Kai-Shek's government.
Ai Weiwei is a very established artist, known as one of the most high-profile and highly paid in this genre, as well as an active dissident and, more personally, someone with an active score to settle with unjust authority.
Hence one of his favorite slogans, "there is no more outdoor
sport as graceful as throwing stones at a dictatorship".
He has made it his life's work to blog constantly about every political activity that he feels is related to his cause. He documents on film and by photo every action he takes.
In 2008, he boycotted the Beijing Olympics, and the Bird's Nest Stadium which he designed...
In 2010, a year after he was beaten and detained by the police, he returned to Chengdu to file complaints with the police and with every government office related to such an incident. He accosts the police officer who beat him (filmed of course) and reminds him of what he did, even yanks off his sunglasses. The artist says later, "Probably no one has dared to talk to or touch that policeman in that way before..."
He continues, "people complain that there is no justice with the police and with authority, but you must first go through all the steps, register complaints to all the proper places and document proof that shows you have...you cannot just complain"
and he proceeds to do precisely that.
The entire group stayed afterwards to have a public meal (which he advertised on the Internet, so many fans showed up) as a public protest. He has a camera man filming all his actions; and there is a government camera man following him to the same. Some of this may sound egotistical on his part, unless one takes in account how dangerous these acts are.
He was asked by the police to leave during the meal, as even this is forbidden, traveling around the country, hanging around as long one feels like doing so, without a permit.
The film also shows Ai Weiwei, in 2010, receiving the news that Liu Xiaobo had just won that year's Nobel Peace Prize. Earlier that same year, the activist Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to jail for five years for "subversion of government authority".
On April 3, 2011, Ai Weiwei was arrested jailed for 81 days. He is filmed on the day of his release, June 22, 2011, returning to his home at night and being bombarded by reporters. He looks almost ashamed at having to refuse to talk to them. The refusal is part of the conditions of his release, as well as desisting from blogging and other forms of activism.
However, months later, Ai Weiwei is back to blogging on the subject of China's politics...
It has been my privilege to see this film, and to write about it--thank you for reading.
*Official reports say that 7,000 schools collapsed, many of them newly-built, many older buildings were untouched. 375,000 injured, 15,000 of those being children. 20,000 still missing, 5,000,000 rendered homeless.
These photos by Ai Weiwei are different from the rest of his work;
Don't be fooled into thinking all his work has middle finger pointing! Check his work out on the Web...
