Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei has a crucial place in contemporary art. He is mainly an artist, but is also known for the planning of important exhibitions, and has been active in architectural design. He is very much interested in how the audience sees and experiences his works and the meanings each person finds thereof. Deeply influenced by Duchamp and Dadaism, Ai Weiwei has devoted himself to conceptual art and has worked on the deconstruction and transformation of ready-made objects. In so doing, he subverts the social and generalized meanings that have been attached to the objects to show the audience that they can have new forms and new meanings. By destroying and reconstructing, he connects the present with the past, or tears them apart, and even newly recreates them. In this way, Ai Weiwei has made for himself a uniquely innovative oeuvre that critiques the centralized ruling structure of China and the dramatic histories of its society and culture. (Gallery Hyundai)