29 May 2011

NewArtTV.com: On Ai Weiwei

On Ai Weiwei

A month into the detention of Ai Weiwei by Chinese authorities on unspecified charges, the artist's 'Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads' project was inaugurated at Grand Army Plaza in New York. The Guggenheim Museum's curator of Asian art, Alexandra Munroe, whose institution has spearheaded a petition effort to free Ai Weiwei, offers a video op-ed on the Zodiac Heads project, Ai's concept of 'social sculpture,' and the arrest and disappearance of an artist who has been outspoken about repression and corruption in his native China. 'Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads' is on view at Grand Army Plaza until July 15. 2011. Another version of 'Zodiac Heads' was unveiled May 12 in London in the courtyard of Somerset House.