After months of traveling, the installation ‚Traveling Landscape’ by the Chinese artist, architect and urbanist Ai Weiwei is opened since November 22, 2007 at AedesLand.
The exhibition is put on display at AedesLand after Ai Weiwei’s art-campaign at the documenta XII, where he invited 1001 Chinese to Kassel. The installation plays ironically with the journey of the unique trolleys, and conceptually broaches the issues of economy, society and culture under a critical point of view. In order to exceed limits, Ai Weiwei´s urban operations as an architect and his art-activities as a conceptual artist intend to broaden one´s perspective.
We cordially invite you to the lecture "Ai Weiwei´s Traveling Landscape in the Context of Architecture and Art" on Decembre 18, 2007 at 18:30 p.m. at AedesLand with:
Eduard Kögel, urban planner, curator and author of various publications on Chinese architecture
Birgit Hopfener, curator, author and art historian with focus on installation art from China.
In dialogue, they will sound the frontier crossings of Ai Weiwei through an architectual and art historical view - including a shift of our views.
The catalogue ‘FAKE design in the Village’ conveys the fight of the surrounding villages against the encroaching city of Beijing. The inexorable urbanization in China, which has enclosed the inner city of Beijing with four motorway circuits in concentric belts, has begun to reach the formerly peaceful village of Caochangdi. The area is located in the wedge between the fifth motorway circuit and the expressway to the airport. Traffic permitting; the drive to the city centre is half an hour. The artist Ai Weiwei moved to the village of Caochangdi at the end of the nineties, where inexpensive land was available. In agreement with the parish council, a residence and studio building was erected in a performance lasting one hundred days with local building material and tradesmen. With this project, a second career as architect and urbanist was taking shape for Ai Weiwei which allowed him to realize his novel spatial ideas, all of which are geared towards the needs of art and art production. They are special refuges in a gigantic revolution, which does not stop at this typical village. Like the implants of a counter world they connect village life to the international art market. This creates an individual dynamics, which in this form seems possible only in China, and is accompanied by an atmosphere of excited activity.
An Aedes catalogue was published.
With a interview to Ai Weiwei
ISBN 978-3-937093-84-0
English
Price € 10,-
