{"id":10165,"date":"2021-07-20T21:25:49","date_gmt":"2021-07-20T19:25:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artinterview.com\/interviews\/ai-weiwei\/"},"modified":"2021-07-21T17:11:59","modified_gmt":"2021-07-21T15:11:59","slug":"ai-weiwei","status":"publish","type":"interview","link":"https:\/\/artinterview.com\/en\/interviews\/ai-weiwei\/","title":{"rendered":"Ai Weiwei"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By St\u00e9phanie Pioda<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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You work on memory, on history, on power. Is your work a way of accumulating information, archives and in turn building up a memory that would not be manipulated by power?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This is a very good question. This question touches upon how I, as an individual, the basic unit of a society, and at the same time as an artist, form my own ecosystem. This ecosystem needs to be supported by a language system. For me, this language system not only records facts, but also examines and reflects upon facts. Recording itself is not a repetition or a reiteration of facts, but rather the process from facts to truth. Truth is not reality. The language of an artist provides truth, and this truth can confront with the reality provided by power systems.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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For this exhibition at the Hetzler gallery, the title highlights materials, “Marble, Porcelain, Lego”, while your subject is a critique of authoritarian powers, of the migration crisis. Why this lag?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Materials that I use for my artworks, be it porcelain or marble or Lego, are just different materials that people use at different stages. Some were used in ancient times; some are traditionally used materials, and some are contemporary. The materials themselves are not important. It\u2019s the content that these materials embody that is important. In terms of content, I examine the migration and refugee problem from a historical perspective once again and use the language of history to depict them. We could see that this is a problem about humankind and about human nature. This is what art should be mostly concerned about.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n