Dissident artist Ai Weiwei opened four solo shows in Beijing last month, putting an end to an implicit exhibition ban that seemed to have been in place since his arrest in 2011, The Art Newspaper reports.
The shows, which include Ai Weiwei held jointly at Galleria Continua and Tang Contemporary Art Centre (until 31 December), AB Blood Type at Magician Space (until 9 August) and Tiger, Tiger, Tiger at Chambers Fine Art (until 31 August), opened with minimal interference from the police, to the surprise of everyone, including the artist who still hasn’t had his passport returned. Additionally, privately owned Chinese media can now mention the artist online, but are de-facto censored when published in print.
‘It is a step closer to getting my passport, but that is not the goal’, Ai Weiwei said to TAN ; ‘without my passport, I am still an artist and I can use the internet to communicate’. It’s still not known whether the artist will be able to travel to London for his retrospective at the Royal Academy opening on 19 September.
6 July 2015
