The Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei continues to be at the heart of major political and world events. Born in Beijing in 1957, he is among the most famous artists in the world, principally due to the activism that led him to be incarcerated in his native China for months without charge in 2011. His most famous works include the photographic series Study of Perspective (1995-2017), showing middle-finger salutes to famous landmarks, and a vast sunflower seed installation at London’s Tate Modern in 2010.
Ai has recently unveiled a major new commission in Kyiv in Ukraine (until 30 November). The single work exhibition—Three Perfectly Proportioned Spheres and Camouflage Uniforms Painted White—comprises three spheres enveloped in camouflaged fabric dotted with images of animals. The fabric forms a connective structure across the spheres.
The work is “a site-specific response to the escalating armed conflicts threatening the world of today”, according to a statement from Ribbon International, the non-profit cultural platform that commissioned the installation. In August, Ai travelled to the front line of the war in eastern Ukraine near Kharkiv, where he met Ukrainian fighters and cultural figures. We spoke to Ai ahead of his Ukrainian intervention at his studio in rural Portugal.
The Art Newspaper: How long have you been in Portugal?
Ai Weiwei: In a five-year period I’ve spent a year and a half here, maybe a year in Berlin, maybe a year in Cambridge [UK]. The rest of the time I’m in between. Obviously I’ve been forced out of my rooted land [China], but I don’t feel sad about it because if you are on this road, you are not on that [other] road. I always accept my situation because my father [the poet Ai Qing] was exiled for 20 years and he’s a perfect example of how a man can accept a situation. Together we lived in this black hole [an underground dugout in Xinjiang province where Ai and his father lived in forced exile in the 1960s].
Is your mother still alive?
My mother’s still alive, she’s 92. I haven’t seen her for ten years, but I’m planning to go back to China. I still have a Chinese passport. I never changed it. I travelled over 300 times across different nations with a Chinese passport, which is very difficult.
But won’t you be arrested?
I don’t see the next step very often. I make some big decisions but cannot say what will come after. I enjoy just making one move—a solid move.
“I went to Ukraine to see the [battle] fields and the drones. It’s just shocking”: Ai with Ukrainian troops
Photo: courtesy Ai Weiwei, via Instagram
Tell us about your experiences in Ukraine.
I went to Ukraine to see the [battle] fields and the drones. It’s just shocking. Standing in the middle of the wheat fields I saw all those strange, strange objects. You see the bomb just landed in the fields in a suburb of Kyiv. You see [the field] is burnt. That’s a Russian bomb. I tried to do everything to understand this nation—what are they fighting for, who they’re fighting with, and how they maintain this idea of dignity and protect their national pride. It is so harsh. I went to the front—the most dangerous front line. Now over 90% of casualties in war are carried out by drones; this is modern warfare.
[Ai shows an image of an ancient artefact with a piece of shrapnel]. So this is part of a bomb or a missile. I put it together with a piece of jade, which is from the Han Dynasty. I want to carry this artefact from 2,000 years ago to witness what happens to human society today.
Did you also plant sunflower seeds in a field in Kharkiv?
Yes, I did. It seems ridiculous. I buried some sunflower seeds and some buttons there. When you witness a serious act, you don’t always realise the meaning behind it. I just think I have to act out a ceremony; you have to find a way to manage your emotions because you’re getting too serious.
Did you enjoy meeting the Ukrainian people?
I love them. They’re very sincere. They desperately need people to understand their situation, but at the same time they really see you as a friend. We all need someone.
I can show you how [the Ukrainian soldiers] work in a secret basement. They’re trying to find the target. And they communicate with the control centre. You can see the images of drones. It is extremely dangerous as the Russians are using the same tactics. It’s just a 10 sq. m space.
Were you frightened in that room?
Never. Nothing scares me any more. I think you should be scared because it seems if you’re not so scared, very often people think you’re not sincere. I understand. But being scared and being sincere are not on the same level. I wanted to know what’s really going on. How do they kill each other? And I had to stay in the room; you cannot go out because the Russian drones can hit you any moment. Being terrified does not help.
Which works will you show in Ukraine?
I’m doing a work called the Sunflower Train. The trains [in Ukraine] are very impressive, this Russian-type train, it’s the main way of travelling.
So I made a sunflower painting from Lego using Van Gogh’s vocabulary. It’s wrapped [around the train] and on top there is a Russian drawing. I’m so happy Ukrainian people want to make the train. Piece by piece, the work will be built in the railway stations. People can add things, making the meaning very different.
Inside there’s a [reproduction of a] famous social realism painting by a [Ukrainian-born] Russian painter [Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks by Ilya Repin]. I saw this painting when I was ten years old, my father showed it to me. That’s why I deeply love the painting. It relates to the war, art history and my personal experience. [The train will travel to all main stations in Ukraine, except for those in occupied areas].
Detail of Ai’s installation in Kyiv, which consists of three interconnected spheres covered in uniforms
Photo: Dmytro Prutkin and Ribbon International
Three Perfectly Proportioned Spheres and Camouflage Uniforms Painted White—the centrepiece in Ukraine—is based on a prototype you created several years ago entitled Divina Proportione.
Those clothes [encasing the spheres] look like military clothing. But they shows cats. They are buttoned together to make a shape and painted white. The exhibition is in Pavilion 13, built in Soviet times in Kyiv. You can see the building is almost like a Mies van der Rohe building.
Is your show in Ukraine a political statement?
It is a highly political statement about war and peace, rationality and irrationality. We need to have peace to guarantee the integrity of the people. Because otherwise it’s not peace. Peace is not slavery. I don’t know when [the war] is going to finish. It is a long tunnel. I want the war to end because so many lives have been wasted. Eventually they [Russia and Ukraine] have to sit down to talk. Nobody wants to give up.
Two years ago you posted a tweet about the Israel-Hamas war that was controversial [he was accused of antisemitism and deleted the tweet]. What do you feel about that situation now?
I did what I should. And that sacrifice is very little compared to all of the lives lost and compared to those children who cannot talk about the future. They don’t even exist. What I did is nothing. I feel I’m a little bit ahead of time. Everybody would say whatever I said was very conservative. It’s not controversial at all.
“Freedom of speech is an essential element for human beings; we have something in our mind and we express it”
Photo: Adam Simons and Ribbon International
Afterwards you told The Art Newspaper: “My father suffered unfair treatment and almost lost his life simply because of his attitude. If he’d lost his life, I would not exist. I’ve always regarded free expression as the value most worth fighting for.”
Freedom of speech is an essential element for human beings; we have something in our mind and we express it. It’s not about right or wrong but really about how sincere an individual can be and also how much we can trust our environment. So of course, in many places people have learned that freedom of speech brings disaster. My father proved that.
Are you sad about the increasingly authoritarian regime in Hong Kong?
At the moment I feel a sense of loss. The people we interviewed in Hong Kong, when we made the film [Cockroach, 2020], they have all ended up in jail. I think it’s the best film about Hong Kong but no film festival wants to show it. We made films about the pandemic. No film festival wants to show it because China is the biggest film market. China has a long-term strategy, it’s playing the long game.
When The Art Newspaper interviewed you in 2020, you were asked about the presence of European museums in China. You said that Western museums are in China purely for self-development reasons. There are still reportedly a million Uyghurs held in camps there—do you find that imbalance distressing?
I never have high expectations about [such] museums. The culture sector in the West is pretty corrupt. If you don’t fight for truth, how can you show moral justice—this is crazy.
• Ai Weiwei: Three Perfectly Proportioned Spheres and Camouflage Uniforms Painted White, Pavilion 13, Expo Center of Ukraine, Kyiv, until 30 November
