Profile Ai Wei Wei

Profile: Ai Weiwei
The artist has been highly vocal about human rights issues in China
Ai Weiwei is both one of China's best-known artists and one of its highest-profile critics. The bearded 53-year-old co-designed Beijing "Bird's Nest" Olympic stadium and has exhibited work all over the world. But his activism as well as his art has brought him attention - he has spoken out against human rights abuses and urged Beijing to reform its political system. "We have a government that, after 60 years in power, doesn't give its own people the right to choose its leaders," he told the BBC in November 2010. "This is a society that sacrifices people's rights and happiness to make a profit." His opinions have attracted the focus of the authorities. In April 2011, he was arrested as he boarded a Hong Kong-bound flight and he is now being investigated for "economic crimes".
'Empty event'
Born in 1957 in Beijing, Ai Weiwei has played a key role in contemporary Chinese art over the last two decades. He is the son of one of China's most famous poets, Ai Qing, a Communist Party member revered today despite being sent to a labour camp during the Cultural Revolution. The family lived in Xinjiang, in China's far north-west, until Ai Qing was formally rehabilitated and allowed to return to Beijing.
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There's still censorship there. You really have to be very alert about where is the fine line, the border
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There Ai Weiwei studied at the Beijing Film Academy and was a founder member of an art group called The Stars. He then spent more than a decade in the US before returning to China. It was his involvement in the design of Beijing's Olympic stadium that brought him international prominence. Working with Swiss architects, he helped design the Bird's Nest structure now recognised around the world. But even as his work was hailed, Ai Weiwei spoke out against the Olympics, describing them as a government-controlled "empty event" not shared by ordinary citizens. He then went on to court controversy in the wake of the devastating May 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Several schools collapsed, prompting accusations from parents that they had been poorly built because of official corruption. Mr Ai produced Remembering, a wall of Chinese text made from children's backpacks that covered the facade of the Haus der Kunst in Munich, Germany. The text read: "'She lived happily for seven years in this world" - the words of a mother whose daughter died in the quake. He also compiled a list of the names of the children who died, and accused the government of exacerbating parents' grief with official denial. "These people are still constantly asking questions and nobody will ever answer them because the government is trying to hide the true problems of the collapse of the school buildings," he told the BBC in May 2009. He later accused police of beating him as he attended the trial of another activist, Tan Zuoren, who had spoken out on the same issue.
'Taboos'
He wrote a well-read blog where he posted films, photos and political opinions, but this was shut down in May 2009. In October 2010 Ai Weiwei unveiled his latest work - a carpet of 100 million porcelain sunflower seeds - at the Tate Modern gallery in London. He has described the work as a commentary on mass production and a question about the role of an individual in society. By then, the authorities in Beijing were paying him considerable attention. In December 2010, days before the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony for imprisoned campaigner Liu Xiaobo, like several other campaigners he was told he could not travel abroad. In January his studio in Shanghai was demolished. Officials said he had failed to obtain planning permission for the building, but Mr Ai said the move was linked to his activism. He was then arrested in April 2011 at Beijing airport. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said he was being investigated "according to the law". Six years ago, in an interview with the BBC, he said that China was opening up and giving its citizens more freedoms. "Certain areas, certain taboos can't be touched. There's still censorship there. You really have to be very alert about where is the fine line, the border," he said. "You don't know exactly where it is, you have to be intelligent." His recent arrest shows that Ai Weiwei may, in the eyes of the Chinese authorities, have crossed that fine line.

Profile Ai Wei Wei

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Profile: Ai Weiwei

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