Ai Weiwei at Palazzo Strozzi

Palazzo Strozzi is planning to impart a fresh boost to its focus on contemporary art in the autumn of 2016 with a major exhibition devoted to one of the world’s most influential contemporary artists, Ai Weiwei.
A leading artist in the most important international museums, with exhibitions at the Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin, the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington D.C., the Tate Modern and the Royal Academy of Art in London, Ai Weiwei is considered one of the world’s greatest living artists and has been a powerful advocate for freedom of expression and human rights.
In 2011, Ai Weiwei was arrested and secretly detained for 81 days. Upon release, Ai’s passport was confiscated and he was barred from traveling or speaking to journalists for a year. Ai managed to continue his prolific practice under these restrictive conditions and continued to present major exhibitions all over the world. Four years later, in July 2015, his passport was returned and his right to freely travel was restored. Ai will bring an exhibition to Palazzo Strozzi, where a broad selection of his work will testify to the strength and vivacity of his oeuvre. Ai Weiwei’s work will be designed in dialogue with the history and architecture of the Renaissance, offering visitors a powerful new take on the space as a whole. Ai Weiwei will also produce a series of installations specifically designed for the various areas in Palazzo Strozzi, thus the palazzo will be structured for the very first time as a single unit, embracing the Courtyard, the Piano Nobile and the Strozzina.
 
“I have been working for almost a year to ensure that Palazzo Strozzi hosts the first major exhibition in Italy of the work of Ai Weiwei, one of the most iconic and influential personalities of our time. Ai Weiwei’s work, combining political activism, autobiography and formal research as it does, speaks to us of major themes in a powerful, direct manner, using artistic vocabulary and tools that bestride East and West. Hosting a retrospective of this nature in Florence means viewing the city as a modern cultural capital, not simply pegged to the vestiges of its past but able, at long last, to play an active role out in the forefront of artistic developments in our own era.” Arturo Galansino, Director General of the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi

Ai Weiwei was born in 1957 in Beijing. His father, the poet Ai Qing, was labeled a “rightist” in 1958 and Ai and his family were exiled, first to Heilongjiang, in northeastern China, and then soon after to the deserts of Xinjiang, in northwestern China.
Following the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, Ai Qing was rehabilitated and the family moved back to Beijing. Ai would enroll at the Beijing Film Academy and was one of the original members of the ‘Stars’ group of artists. Ai moved to the United States in 1981, living in New York between 1983 and 1993. He briefly studied at the Parsons School of Design. In New York, Ai would discover the works of Marcel Duchamp and Andy Warhol.
Returning to China in 1993 to care for his ailing father, Ai contributed to the establishment of Beijing’s East Village, a community of avant-garde artists. In 1997, he co-founded the China Art Archives & Warehouse (CAAW), one of the first independent art spaces in China. He began to take an interest in architecture in 1999, designing his own studio house in Caochangdi, on the northeast edge of Beijing. In 2003, Ai started his own architecture practice, FAKE Design. In 2007, as a participant of documenta 12, Ai brought 1001 Chinese citizens to Kassel as part of his Fairytale project. In 2008, Ai and the Swiss architecture team of Herzog and de Meuron designed the Beijing National Stadium. In 2010, Ai covered the floor of the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern with 100 million porcelain sunflower seeds.
In 2012, Ai Weiwei was awarded the Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent, by the Human Rights Foundation. Most recently, in 2015, Ai was awarded the Ambassador of Conscience Award, by Amnesty International, for his actions in support of the defense of human rights.
Recent exhibitions include Ai Weiwei at the Royal Academy of Art in London, Ai Weiwei @ Helsinki at the Helsinki Museum of Art in Helsinki, @Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz in San Francisco, Ai Weiwei: According to What? at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York, and Evidence at the Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin. Upcoming exhibitions include Andy Warhol | Ai Weiwei at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne and Ai Weiwei: Er Xi at Le Bon Marché in Paris.

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