Ai Weiwei in "Change" - Season 6 - "Art in the Twenty-First Century" | Art21

- Sound work okay back there?

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

to celebrate a remarkable
piece of public art

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

Ai Weiwei.

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

"Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads."

Even though he could not
be with us physically

he continues to speak to us,
to delight us,

to challenge us through his art.

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

follows in New York City’s
proud tradition of

presenting unforgettable public art
that everyone can enjoy.

Ai Weiwei believes that art
should be for everyone

and we couldn’t agree more.

[ E-SHYH WONG ]
We call him in

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

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

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

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

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

actually you know.

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

on his assistants and coworkers
to be executed you know.

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

what’s very important to Weiwei

is the space and
how he can use the space.

He has a lot of craftsmen

and a lot of people working with him.

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

[ INSERK YANG ]
The studio always used to be

in a state of constant flux you know.

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

that we call volunteers
you know.

They come for a certain
kind of interest,

are mostly Chinese,
mostly young people.

Often are not related to art
at all you know.

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

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

and they would like to be part of it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And he would probably make
the most noise of anybody.

So I think we still,

he’s still very careful
about what he does.

He doesn’t just make
noise to make it.

So I think we’re,
we’re thinking,

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

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

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

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

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

He's good to be around.

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

You know normally
that’s a prerequisite

and you really wait
for the artist to come.

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

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

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

and had arranged interviews
and we would expect him

to be able to speak.

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

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

As is well known,
Ai Weiwei is the son of

a very famous poet, Ai Qing.

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

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

and went to New York.

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

He was making work
but he wasn’t really pursuing

a strong career as an artist.

And I think you know
those two influences

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

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

and art world with
a very strong voice.

There are a couple of
works in the show

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

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

and representing on a plinth.

You know security cameras are
very prevalent for…

in all of our lives there.

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

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

but he was you know
specifically under surveillance

for a number of years.

He in one way took that quite lightly.

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

and stand outside his house.

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

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

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

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

monument in marble of a security camera,

he adopted another strategy
which was to put his life in

as public a view as possible.

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

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

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

there’s nothing to spy on.

So he had nothing to hide actually.

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

in its own terms and as,
as simply and clearly

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

[ indistinct conversation ]

[ cat meows ]

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

[ AI WEIWEI ]
Uh, how?

The decision is not made very,

I should say,
not very seriously.

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

when I start to do art.

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

can be a worker,
farmer, or soldier.

Or you become somebody
who

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

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

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

You know I, I spent years.

I called myself an artist,
but not really.

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

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

And...which surprised me also you know.

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

Or you know when they say
you can make chandeliers,

you are, you’re a chandelier maker.

And it’s very convincing.

I mean more convincing
than anything else.

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

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

It’s a crooked coffin.

I think yeah,

you can use it as a table too,

to take a nap or something.

The media is the message,

I mean in many cases which is true,

not you know even in the classic sense.

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

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

Yeah, those are really are useless objects.

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

I mean you…
it takes perfect craftsmanship,

beautiful material and
carefully measured and crafted.

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

You need something
people can realize is art you know,

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

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

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

So sometimes you have to say,

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

[ laughs ]

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

so-called art is,

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

The audio component with Harvard 
backpack installation is the,

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

My carpenters always need job.

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

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

I don’t have so much ideas.

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

And they said, "This is very difficult."

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

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

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

Gradually, it become a game for them.

They really love it.

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

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

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

monitor people’s behaving or....

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

It’s not functioning anymore, you know.

[ siren blaring, traffic ]

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"Art in the Twenty-First Century"

and it's educational resources,

please visit us online at: PBS.org/art21

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