Ai Weiwei's 'Template'
The new Shanghai studio designed by Ai Weiwei, a protean artist who is one of the most outspoken critics of the Chinese Communist Party, was completely razed at the order of government officials on Tuesday, Ai said in a telephone interview from Shanghai today to the New York Times’s Edward Wong. Ai said a neighboring studio he had designed for a friend had also been destroyed.
“Everything is gone,” he said. “It’s all black now. They finished the job at 9 PM last night.”
It is the latest act in Ai’s escalating conflict with government officials over the Communist Party’s authoritarian rule — a clash that Ai now views as performance art.
Ai said he did not know why officials decided to destroy the studios, but suspects it was because of his political activities. He had known about the order to destroy the studios since last July, when construction on the buildings was completed, but was shocked to discover that workers had started the job at 6 AM on Tuesday. Ai said officials had told him earlier that the destruction would not take place until after the first day of the upcoming Year of the Rabbit, which falls on February 3.
“I called the officials and said, ‘You promised us not to take it down until after New Year’s Day,’” Ai said. “They said, ‘If the studio is to be taken down, it doesn’t matter if it’s sooner or later.’”
Ai added that the officials might have moved ahead with their plans so that the destruction would take place without people knowing about it. Neighbors of the studio called Ai’s assistant on Tuesday morning when they heard heavy machinery next door. Ai said he rushed onto an airplane in Beijing, where he lives, and arrived in time to see four machines and dozens of workers toiling away on the site. About eighty percent of the structures had been destroyed by the afternoon, he said.
Shanghai city officials could not be reached on Wednesday evening for comment.
