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Ai Weiwei is a Chinese dissident artist, who now resides in Germany.
He was arrested and detained for "economic crimes" in 2011, but later released. This page collates DW's latest content related to Ai Weiwei.
The Chinese artist's latest documentary, "Coronation," was filmed remotely by a team of amateur Wuhan filmmakers. Ai Weiwei spoke to DW about how an authoritarian state stopped the COVID-19 outbreak in its tracks.
Artist Ai Weiwei created the film "Coronation" to reflect what happened in Wuhan, the first city in the world to deal with COVID-19.
Isolation has long inspired artistic creativity: From contemporaries like Ai Weiwei and Igor Levit to nineteenth century literati like Victor Hugo and Alexander Pushkin, lockdowns have long inspired great art.
"Every artist is an activist," says Ai Weiwei, who presents himself as a conceptual artist and a writer. He addressed his relationship to Germany at his recent book launch in Berlin.
Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has denied being "thrown out" of a Munich gallery after protesting with staff fearing layoffs. Media had shown Ai debating with Bernhard Spies, commercial director of the Haus der Kunst.
The Chinese artist was asked to leave the Haus der Kunst (House of Art) after voicing support for staff facing redundancy. Ai had fled to Germany after his human rights activism landed him in jail in his native China.
Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei has told DW that Beijing could "crush" Hong Kong protesters anytime. The two sides have reached a deadlock in the conflict, he said.
Following the so-called Cultural Revolution, Chinese artists started exploring new forms of expression. Oftentimes they would run into considerable obstacles and challenges they had to work around or overcome altogether.
The Berlin-based Chinese artist is suing Volkswagen in Denmark for an ad that shows one of his installations made of discarded life jackets used by migrants.
For the Chinese-born, Berlin-based artist, art and politics are one and the same. A double exhibition in Dusseldorf shows off his work from the past 10 years, much of it focusing on migration and political repression.
Producers of the film 'Berlin, I Love You' have cited Chinese influence as the reason they cut Ai Weiwei's segment. The artist told DW that the Berlin International Film Festival suggested his section be removed.
In an interview with DW, China's dissident artist Ai Weiwei has said that some groups are trying to incite hatred against immigrants in Germany and Europe, and that the world needs to rethink the idea of humanity.
One of China's best-known artists and government critics, Ai Weiwei, says workers have demolished his studio in Beijing. He said the demolition occurred without notice.
Losers or winners of globalization? At the Berlin poetry festival, Ai Weiwei and Yang Lian connect through verse and on a T-shirt, while a Chinese factory worker becomes a literary star through her migrant worker poetry.
The Chinese artist has lived and worked in Berlin since leaving his homeland in 2015 and is now pondering his next step. Citing the language barrier as a reason for moving on, Ai Weiwei will keep his studio in the city.
Self-portraits were not invented with the smartphone. See how the masters of self-portraits developed new representations of the artist throughout the centuries.