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- Sound work okay back there?

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[ MAYOR BLOOMBERG ] It is a bittersweet honor
to welcome all of you here today

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to celebrate a remarkable
piece of public art

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by one of the world’s most
creative and courageous public citizens,

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Ai Weiwei.

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Ai Weiwei could not be with us here
for this unveiling of his latest work,

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"Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads."

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Even though he could not
be with us physically

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he continues to speak to us,
to delight us,

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to challenge us through his art.

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In its scale and accessibility,
"Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads"

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follows in New York City’s
proud tradition of

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presenting unforgettable public art
that everyone can enjoy.

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Ai Weiwei believes that art
should be for everyone

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and we couldn’t agree more.

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[ E-SHYH WONG ]
We call him in

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Chinese... [ speaking Chinese ]
which is Teacher Ai.

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And he is always very conscious
that if we’re learning about something new.

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For every project he wants
to make sure that there’s

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learning involved and it’s not
just you know doing any menial task.

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[ INSERK YANG ]
He gives a lot of freedom and…

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actually you know.

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He’s not the kind of artist that
imposes his creative decisions

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on his assistants and coworkers
to be executed you know.

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[ E-SHYH WONG ]
Well with any proposal we get,

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what’s very important to Weiwei

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is the space and
how he can use the space.

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He has a lot of craftsmen

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and a lot of people working with him.

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As he works directly with us,
he works directly with them.

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[ INSERK YANG ]
The studio always used to be

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in a state of constant flux you know.

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Always many people coming,
especially in the last couple of years

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that we call volunteers
you know.

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They come for a certain
kind of interest,

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are mostly Chinese,
mostly young people.

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Often are not related to art
at all you know.

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And so we have housewives
really coming to our place and,

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and telling Weiwei that they think his,
his work has some kind of meaning

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and they would like to be part of it.

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And usually he just,
if he feels like that there’s

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enough passion to go this way,
then he accepts that you know.

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[ E-SHYH WONG ]
Every day people are coming up to us

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and giving us proposals of something
they can do to help Weiwei.

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At first we thought, "Okay,
maybe we should stay quiet a bit,

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because we don’t want to
upset the Chinese government."

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But then we think,
"What would Weiwei do?"

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And he would probably make
the most noise of anybody.

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So I think we still,

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he’s still very careful
about what he does.

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He doesn’t just make
noise to make it.

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So I think we’re,
we’re thinking,

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we’re trying to think very clearly
about the right approach,

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but I don’t think we think
the right way is to be quiet.

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[ INSERK YANG ]
That’s true, don’t be quiet.

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[ GREG HILTY ]
It’s sad not to see him

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because he’s a very entertaining
and very charismatic figure.

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He's good to be around.

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It’s been very strange obviously
installing a show without the artist.

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You know normally
that’s a prerequisite

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and you really wait
for the artist to come.

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Obviously we have our own ideas
about how to use the gallery

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and what we want,
but there’s always things change.

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We decided to put the posters up
because normally an artist is here

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and had arranged interviews
and we would expect him

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to be able to speak.

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So we thought that actually getting
his voice out there was important.

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And we just chose a small selection
of very pertinent, timeless quotes.

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As is well known,
Ai Weiwei is the son of

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a very famous poet, Ai Qing.

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He grew up knowing that art was
both very powerful and very controversial.

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He kind of ran away from that
and ran away from China in the late ‘80s

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and went to New York.

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Had a period of, I guess,
reflection and absorbing things.

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He was making work
but he wasn’t really pursuing

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a strong career as an artist.

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And I think you know
those two influences

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when he finally
came back to China in the mid-90s,

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really set him up to take a stand
and enter the Chinese cultural world

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and art world with
a very strong voice.

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There are a couple of
works in the show

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that for me are very important
and, and very poignant.

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There’s security camera
which he’s made in marble

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and representing on a plinth.

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You know security cameras are
very prevalent for…

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in all of our lives there.

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They kind of are the background
to our lives and we take them for granted.

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For him it was very present,
it wasn’t just in the background,

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but he was you know
specifically under surveillance

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for a number of years.

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He in one way took that quite lightly.

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He was, he would chat to the security guards,
sort of plainclothes people who’d come

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and stand outside his house.

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And he’d sort of shake their hands
and you know he was quite relaxed

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when we said, isn’t this,
"Isn’t this disturbing?"

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But obviously it is disturbing and
what’s happened has been terrible.

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The other thing that’s interesting about that
is that while he’s made this kind of

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monument in marble of a security camera,

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he adopted another strategy
which was to put his life in

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as public a view as possible.

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When I went to see him in the studio he tweeted,

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you know, 20 times during 
our first hour-long meeting.

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And I guess the principle is that
as long as everything is out in the open,

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there’s nothing to spy on.

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So he had nothing to hide actually.

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He works in many different ways,
but each one of those ways he uses

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in its own terms and as,
as simply and clearly

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and strongly as possible to give
testimony to the world he’s living in.

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[ indistinct conversation ]

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[ cat meows ]

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[ INTERVIEWER ]
How did you decide to become an artist?

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[ AI WEIWEI ]
Uh, how?

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The decision is not made very,

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I should say,
not very seriously.

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I mean this is a,
there’s not much choice there

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when I start to do art.

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You’re either non-artist,
which means you’re,

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can be a worker,
farmer, or soldier.

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Or you become somebody
who

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at that time I would call art-worker you know.

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So since I’m a bit familiar with art,
because of my father,

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so I just picked up this. And, uh, you know not very successful.

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You know I, I spent years.

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I called myself an artist,
but not really.

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I don’t have many works, or,
or nothing people would appreciate.

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Till very late, you know 2004,
I started to have shows.

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And...which surprised me also you know.

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You’re always someone,
you’re capable to be.

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Or you know when they say
you can make chandeliers,

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you are, you’re a chandelier maker.

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And it’s very convincing.

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I mean more convincing
than anything else.

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That’s why they call me
political activist, I guess.

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Actually I never really re-think about
my work you know, it’s already past.

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It’s a crooked coffin.

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I think yeah,

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you can use it as a table too,

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to take a nap or something.

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The media is the message,

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I mean in many cases which is true,

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not you know even in the classic sense.

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The...it, it carries the full 
intention and the meaning.

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Once you change it, it is,
it’s very disturbing.

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Yeah, those are really are useless objects.

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I’m very much interested in
this so-called useless object.

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I mean you…
it takes perfect craftsmanship,

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beautiful material and
carefully measured and crafted.

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But at the same time,
it’s really useless. I mean...

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You need something
people can realize is art you know,

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otherwise they think you are
too political or you’re too....

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You’re…
"What are you doing, it’s not art."

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Or, or "You'll never
get it," You know.

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So sometimes you have to say,

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"Oh, I’m an artist." You know. "I can do this." You know.

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[ laughs ]

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I think I’m interested in
these kind of activities,

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so-called art is,

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is only because that’s always
dealing with new possibilities.

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The audio component with Harvard 
backpack installation is the,

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reading of the 5,000 names of the
dead students victimized by the earthquake.

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My carpenters always need job.

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They always say, "Well Weiwei,
what next we can do?"

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So I, I really have no ideas what,
you know I, I’m not a....

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I don’t have so much ideas.

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I said that maybe we try this bowl.
And it was come from a plastic cat toy.

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And they said, "This is very difficult."

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So I said, "Okay, that’s the purpose."

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So take them like a,
a year or so you know

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to try to figure out how to
make this structure without nails.

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Gradually, it become a game for them.

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They really love it.

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Even this has no purpose,
but they accept it because it’s so difficult.

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Yeah, I mean, surveillance has, 
it’s a very clear meaning.

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It's to monitor, you know or secretly
--secretly monitor…

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monitor people’s behaving or....

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But once it’s become a marble,
it’s only being watched.

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It’s not functioning anymore, you know.

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[ siren blaring, traffic ]

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[ Announcer ] To learn more about 
"Art in the Twenty-First Century"

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and it's educational resources,

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please visit us online at: PBS.org/art21

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"Art in the Twenty-First Century" 
is available on DVD.

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The companion book is also available,

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to order, visit us online at: shopPBS.org

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or call PBS Home Video at 1-800-PLAY-PBS.