FIFA 2015: Ai Weiwei - Evidence

Ai Weiwei - Evidence

GERMANY / 2014 / COLOR / 52 MIN / FRENCH

Production Team

Realisation: Grit Lederer
Script: Grit Lederer, Irene Höfer
Cinematography: Leif Karpe
Sound: Sirko Loschner
Editing: Gerrit Ohlsberg
Narration: C. Tartarin
Participation(s): Ai WeiWei
Producer(s): Irene Höfer
Production: Medea Film, ZDF-ARTE
Distribution: Medea Film

Official Synopsis

"Evidence is the title of an exhibition that opened in April 2014 at Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin, the largest exhibition ever to be devoted to Ai Weiwei (born in 1957). Consisting of monumental works, photos and videos, it is yet another testimonial to his rebellion against a regime that is trying to stifle him. Imprisoned in 2011 and then put under house arrest, under continual surveillance, accused of tax fraud, relieved of his passport, prohibited from exhibiting, Ai Weiwei expresses himself primarily via his blog and tweets in his own country. He has decided to stay in China to “document” the repressive nature of its regime. He opens the doors of his studio on the outskirts of Beijing, where he is preparing for his big exhibition in Berlin."

Ai Weiwei, a Chinese artist who is well-accepted and valued in the western world, prepares for his new exhibition at the Berlin's Martin-Gropius-Bau contemporary art exhibition centre. The film unveils the artist's difficult position in his own country. He has been arrested in the past and kept in a prison, according to him - for opposing the mainstream dogmas in his country. Official China version is, he he was arrested for tax evasion. The film brings into focus Ai Weiwei's circumstances. He is by no means a struggling artist: his spacious studio, a large art production factory, a number of workers he employs, hundreds of old antic pieces he buys for his art creations from antic dealers, the golden status of the Chinese zodiac he makes, they all pose a question, how is he able to pay for all this? At some point, he is even asked a directly that buying all those huge number of antique stools, some even from ancient Chinese Emperor dynasties, must be quite expensive, and the artist agrees that it is. So where all the money comes from? Are Ai Weiwei's  monumental works bought in great numbers in the west (and stored somewhere out of sight) to provide him with his income? Somehow it is hard to imagine that Berlin's Martin-Gropius-Bau paid for producing all the pieces for the show and paid salaries for all the workers involved. If they did, are they the owners of those works now? Where do they keep them? This brings to question the word Evidence in the title of the film. Does it refer to the evidence Ai Weiwei obtained when he chased an undercover cop and took away the memory card from his camera? Or does the word refer to some other evidence that leaches through the film?

Although Ai Weiwei is presently out of jail, he is prohibited from travelling outside of China. He cannot exhibit his art works in China but is free to do so anywhere else in the world. Although the film focuses on the restrictive aspects of his life rather than on his creative processes, it does show some interesting aspects of his everyday reality: his spacious studio and the adjacent grounds, and the old factory he bought in an hour's drive from Beijing where he produces, with a help of workers, his monumental art pieces. Three pieces that were to be exhibited in Berlin are shown in the film, and the reasons for making them are elaborated upon with the main emphases on the historical and political aspects. Do not expect to discover Ai Weiwei's purely artistic or aesthetic aspirations and issues when watching this film, yet it does portray an artist of an international standing with many innovative and monumental installations that capture people's imagination.

Visit the Art FIFA website for more information and the scheduling.

http://www.artfifa.com

Some short excerpts from the film are also available on YouTube.

Three years ago, in 2012, Art FIFA presented another documentary film about Ai Weiwei called Ai Weiwei: Without Fear or Favour. You can read about it in my post here:

http://artframe.blogspot.ca/2012/04/fifa-30th-edition-ai-weiwei.html


Top photo courtesy of FIFA.
Film Review © 2015 Nadia Slejskova