Exile On Main Street
An Interview of Ai Weiwei

interview by Oliver Maxwell Kupper
portrait by Flo Kohl

One week before this interview, Ai Weiwei’s studio in Beijing was bulldozed by Chinese authorities without any warning. Known for his brazen acts of dissent, Ai has not only challenged authoritarianism in China – the revolutionary polymath has also been extremely vocal about the worldwide refugee crisis. In a constant limbo state of exile, Ai has been living and working in Germany since getting his passport back in 2015. This fall, he will be taking over Los Angeles with three major exhibitions that he sees as one singular expression. At UTA Artist Space—which is housed in a 4,000-square-foot former diamond-tooling facility conceived and designed by Ai—the artist will be showing a series of sculptural works made from marble, including his iconic CCTV camera on a plinth, a Damoclean symbol of our post-capitalist era of state-sponsored surveillance. Central to the exhibition will be Humanity, a performative work and social media campaign that encourages visitors to the gallery to read a passage from Ai’s recent book on the refugee crisis—the footage will be compiled in a 30-minute video. On view until March 2019 at Marciano Art Foundation, Life Cycle will also explore the crisis of global displaced persons by drawing on the artist’s personal experiences and Chinese mythology. The show will include his famous work, Sunflower Seeds, which is comprised of over 49 tons of porcelain sunflower seeds carved and crafted by 1,600 artisans in Jingdezhen, in China’s Jiangxi province. Finally, at Jeffrey Deitch’s new Hollywood Gallery, Ai will present his installation of over 6,000 salvaged wooden stools from the Ming and Qing dynasties, which were gathered from villages across Northern China, thus serving as quotidian ciphers of cultural erasure and human existence.

OLIVER KUPPER: First off, I know you recently went through the stressful experience of seeing your studio be demolished. How are you doing through all this?

AI WEIWEI: The studio in Beijing—Zuoyou—was my main studio for production since 2006. Most of my large installations shown all over the world came from this studio. I was quite shocked when I saw the first photos and footage of when the state came, without warning, and began to destroy the windows and walls. I’m shocked not because of the brutal action, but because there has been no improvement with this kind of state action since my first studio was demolished in 2011. There was no warning, no communication, no space for negotiation. It is like a military action; the destruction simply began. 

However, I’m not surprised. We have seen millions of homes that had belonged to migrants destroyed around the city, cleaned out to make way for new development. China does not have any organizations or human rights protections for those poor individuals and no local media will report it. After my studio was demolished, not a single media report, or even a single line, was written. If you live under this kind of state for the past half-century you become speechless. 

KUPPER: I know you have dealt with extreme censorship and threats because of your viewpoints, do you feel more threatened now that the powers that be have further cemented their hold on power?

WEIWEI: The threat to me comes from authoritarian society, which will not allow a single clear mind or voice. They will do anything to take that away. They could put you away in jail, treat you violently, or make you disappear. I am now based outside of China, but that threat still exists. Around the world, in both authoritarian and democratic societies, individual rights face different kinds of threat. That is quite shocking. Recently two journalists working for Reuters in Myanmar were sentenced to several years in jail for truthfully reporting the Rohingya condition. Journalists and lawyers in China are detained and locked up without trial for attempting to defend the essential principle of justice. People who reveal the truth have had to escape into exile from the United States and other Western countries. This is a continuous struggle between individuals and powerful states.  

KUPPER: Your father was a poet and you grew up in the midst of the Cultural Revolution in China, how old were you when you first realized that things weren’t normal, when did the idea of political exile become clear to you?

WEIWEI: I was exiled since I was born. My father was sent to a re-education camp in the most remote and difficult area of China. He was forced to do physical labor and disallowed from writing a single line of poetry. I was not conscious of our exile until I was nine or ten years old. When the Cultural Revolution happened, I helped my father burn all of his books. That was the first time I realized our situation. Why did a poet have to burn all of his treasures, his poetry and art books, page by page? Watching the books disappear in the fire, I realized a sense of danger. The danger toward our lives was not because we had done anything wrong, but because we allowed the truth to coexist in our lives. We had to show our weakness by hiding and destroying those truths to avoid further persecution. 

KUPPER: Did that coincide with your urge for dissent - or did the idea of rebelling come naturally to you, because not a lot of people decide to fight, a lot of people become complacent for fear of death or imprisonment?

WEIWEI: My rebelling spirit does not come consciously. I used to say that it was born with me. From the start, we were seen as dissidents and enemies of the state. It gave us a unique position to see ourselves as being different from the mainstream society.

KUPPER: What was your mother like - what role did she play for you?

WEIWEI: My mother made a clear choice to be with my father. Most families broke apart when the husband committed those so-called crimes. The simplest way is to separate, to create a clear line between the family, children, and parents. My mom made a clear choice to stay with my father and I respected that act. Not until very late did I realize how that single act protected the family, my father, and my own childhood. She was the last unconquered castle.

KUPPER: A lot of contemporary intellectuals and artists have been censored or ostracized - we’ve been a huge fan of the late Ren Hang. What did you think of his work, and do you think the extreme censorship created some of his personal struggles?

WEIWEI: China has the strongest censorship compared to any other nation. Although China is not a religious society, mainstream communist thought dominates every part of it, including aesthetics, morality, and philosophy. The new generation, born in the 1970s and 80s, did not really grow up under the same harsh conditions. They are more liberal in their expression, but they still live under the same shadow. They can sense that the cultural environment and state policy will not allow them to do many things. That creates interesting work. Ren Hang was one of the best at expressing himself and that expression included his suicide.

KUPPER: Why is the Chinese government so afraid of individuality? What is so terrifying about personal expression?

WEIWEI: Any government, not only the Chinese government, is afraid of individuality. True individuality is at odds with collective thinking. In authoritarian societies, being different can be very threatening – even just a single gesture or an attitude. In the West, individuals also face similar problems because the mainstream education system and culture perpetuate a relative truth that is different from what in fact takes place globally. This relative truth provides limited freedom and breaking that line also places you in danger.

KUPPER: Right now we are in one of the most intense refugee crises that the world has ever seen, do you see an end in sight or will this be a multiple generation process of healing once the wound is closed?

WEIWEI: The refugee crisis is a symptom of a larger crisis. The world is further dividing into two worlds. On one hand, you have the rich, the powerful, and the extreme immoral and senseless desire for profit. On the other hand, you have the vast poor who have no power to end their poverty. The rich and the poor are so separated, and it is not because of borders but, rather, economic and political interests. As long as this ruthless capitalism perpetuates, the tragic situation will continue and grow. 

KUPPER: One of your new social media campaigns, and it will be the focus of your upcoming show at UTA, is Voice for Humanity, which includes people reading excerpts from your book Humanity - can you tell me a little bit how it all got started?

WEIWEI: I have three shows in Los Angeles this autumn, but I see all three shows as one. One of the works is a performance, an online activity, which is called Humanity. We are simply asking people to read a paragraph or two from my newly published book ‘Humanity.’ The book consists of hundreds of my quotes, taken from interviews, essays, and talks given in the last few years on the topic of humanity in relation to the refugee crisis. 

I still believe that humanity is the key to solve this problem. People have been so divided by what the refugee crisis is about. It’s not about regional war, religious conflicts, or economic problems, but about our understanding of humanity. It’s about how we see ourselves and how we are responsible for those who have become victimized. That is why we are trying to get more people involved, to consciously talk about humanity, and to make others aware that we are part of the problem.

KUPPER: One of your biggest declarations is that humanity will always win over hate or segregation - why is it so hard for people to see refugees as people, people that are suffering?

WEIWEI: For too long the world has been divided by ‘them’ and ‘us.’ We have been divided because of cultural, religious, language, economic, and political differences. We have forgotten that we are all human beings. If you look at the children of refugees, you can see they are exactly like our own children. They need protection and education. They can greatly benefit our society in the future. Any attempt to divide us from the idea that humanity is one is a narrow-minded and painfully stupid idea. 

KUPPER: What do you think is the biggest misunderstanding about you as an artist - are there any myths about that you wish would shatter?

WEIWEI: The biggest misunderstanding is to see me as an artist rather than as a human being.