VENICE, Italy (AP) – Chinese dissident and artist Ai Weiwei has warned against arrogance, calling it “a time of so much trouble” with “Memento Mori,” with his first glass sculpture ever created on the Venetian island of Murano: “Memento mori,” Latin for “remember you must die.”
Russian bombs were dropped on Ukraine. China is increasing its military strength in the Taiwan Strait. Migrants die repeatedly at sea as smugglers’ boats sink. The Earth heats up, causing droughts, breaking up glaciers and triggering violent storms. The pandemic persists.
“We’re talking about many things. We’re talking about immigrants, about deaths, about war, about many issues, Ai told The Associated Press in Venice on Friday.
He stands beside his 9-metre (29.5-foot), nearly 3-ton black glass sculpture, suspended over the central nave of the deconsecrated church of San Giorgio Maggiore, located opposite St. Mark’s Square in Venice. Titled “The Human Comedy: Memento Mori,” the sculpture is the centerpiece of the AI exhibition at the church that opens on Sunday.
The massive hanging artwork is part chandelier, part fracture, with intricately hung glass skeletons and skulls, both human and animal, balanced with glass-blown human limbs and the Twitter Bird logo and surveillance cameras. There are scattered similarities, which point to the dark side. technology.
“We see that the environment is completely disappearing, being destroyed by the effort of humans … and this will create a huge disaster or famine. Or war, because there is a potential political conflict between China and the West. China exercises more control over Hong Kong and threatens to take control of Taiwan, Ai said.
“We have to rethink about legitimacy in humans and the environment. Do we really deserve this planet, or are we so short-sighted and racist? And very, very self-seeking, selfish,” added the artist.
There are also small glass sculptures in the exhibition. One depicts Ai himself as a prisoner, a reference to his months in a Chinese prison in 2011. Another applied his distorted face to a replica of an 18th-century sculpture titled “The Allegory of Jealousy”. Purity colored glass hard caps save space in the choir. Lego-brick portrait replicas of famous paintings and the Chinese zodiac line line the walls of the adjacent rooms.
Ai said he thinks Russia’s invasion of Ukraine gave Chinese officials a “probable model” for understanding how such an operation could go on in Taiwan, without any encouragement or warning.
“I think China is part of a global power struggle that reflects our modern understanding and classic belief about the region and who has the right to do what,” he said. “What happens in the Russian and Ukraine conflict clearly gives China a mental exercise in what they want to do in Taiwan, if it is needed.”
But the artist says that any Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be a mistake and a misunderstanding of Taiwan’s history.
“The Chinese think that Taiwan belongs to China, but in reality China and Taiwan are separated for more than 70 years. They have their own social structure, which is more democratic and more peaceful than China. China to claim Taiwan by force Any move will result in “final conflict”.
He sees the conflict in China as one for the legitimacy of the authorities’ control, while the challenge in the West is the continued need to protect democracy and with it freedom of expression. He said that the West’s heel is its economic dependence on China’s cheap manufacturing.
“That’s why China is so confident,” Ai said. “They know the West cannot live without China.”
He cited examples of Western hypocrisy, including his rejection of festivals in Europe and the United States, which he depicted in Wuhan’s first lockdown during the pandemic, and conflict in Hong Kong.
After praising the films, the festival eventually “gives the final word, we can’t show it,” for fear of losing access to the Chinese market, Ai said.
His works run more smoothly, he said, because his artistic language is harder to explain.
“My work is about a new vocabulary, so it’s difficult for someone who doesn’t have a whole lot of knowledge. It requires study,” Ai said. “I don’t create excerpts just to please the audience. But I always want to say something that’s important.”
Tourists wandering by water bus were delighted that they were caught in an exhibition of the famous dissatisfied artist.
“Is it metal? When I first saw it I thought it represented hell,” said Kenneth Cheung, a Hong Kong native living in Toronto, Canada, as he examined the grand sculpture of glass. Being, it is even stronger, more powerful.”
It took three years to realize the main sculpture in a glass studio on Murano with the help of artists employing three techniques: traditional Murano blown glass, wax molds and injection molds. Studio owner Adriano Berengo said he pursued AI for years to secure a collaboration with an artist admired for his strong political beliefs.
“He shows his face. He doesn’t hide. He is ready to risk his life, and he did it in China,” Berengo said.
The exhibition runs until 27 November in Venice. From there, the hanging statue will go to the Design Museum in London and then, hopefully a buyer, Berengo said.
“It must be a big museum. Otherwise how can you have such an artwork?” They said.
(This story has not been edited by seemayo staff and is published from a rss feed)