Chinese artist and activist Veyvey Ai (Ai Weiwei), recently participated in the program discussions, Art Basel Conversation, not yet fully recovered after surgery, he underwent about three months ago. He happened to brain hemorrhage caused by, he said, were injuries in an attack by the Chinese police. Hay said that he began to pursue a long time ago: it was in the project "The names of the Sichuan earthquake, which draws attention to the fact that many of the terrible consequences of the disaster could have been avoided if not for the indifference of the authorities. Artist operated on in Munich, where he arrived to prepare for his personal exhibition. "The operation saved my life" - he said in an interview with The Art Newspaper, who visited him shortly before the Beijing studio fair. He added that a full recovery will need about another four months.

popular blog Aya, which he conducted on the Chinese website Sina.com, was closed. Now the artist is only Page Twitter, where he read about 10 thousand people. "140 characters is enough for me - after the operation I have enough concentration only on this, - says the artist. - Long article, I now can not write." In China, Twitter is blocked, and users have to find ways to "bypass" filters.

Hay has written about his troubles with the Sichuan police about his work on "In the name of Sichuan earthquake," about the nomination of the Chinese authors on the international prize of the PEN Club, designed for writers, sitting in prison, and Obama's recent visit to China. Commenting about politics, the artist strong language does not regret. Sichuan police denied any involvement in the beating of Aya, but he argues that he has a record of attack. The government also began to investigate his financial activities.

is what Ai said his presence in electronic media: "to express their views through art, that is, to clothe them in some sort of traditional form, such as painting or sculpture, is not enough ... as a citizen, you must declare their views. Articles, blogs, interviews - is also part of this, otherwise the establishment will perceive you, as he wants ... The struggle will always be, as there is power, yet there are people ».

Hay grew up in a labor camp Shihezi , which is located in Xinjiang province in north-west of the country. "[During the Cultural Revolution] was a terrible time - he said. - The whole society could turn against you. I was born in 1957 - that year my father [the poet Ai Qing] was sent into exile. First he was sent to a labor camp, who was in a forest in northern China, and a year later was transferred to Xinjiang, where I lived until the age of 18. During the Cultural Revolution people were punished this way - were sent to live in the most appalling conditions. I hate to talk about this too much emotion. The fact that people were dying, dying constantly. My father is blind in one eye, several times I almost died, and I went out very weak and sickly ».

leaving home, Hay went to New York. "A completely different civilization - the art of the 1980's, German expressionism, so many interesting". His career he began painting. "At the Institute I learned the cartoonist, then closely engaged in the manufacture of installations and facilities. I returned to China in 1993, and I went there in 1981. Ai was a founding member of "Stars", which is now considered the most influential artistic communities that have emerged after China's reform 1980. "[Then the artists have found] something totally unfamiliar to them earlier - freedom, but the party is not allowed to go too far [in the product] should have been some kind of structure. We then searched for a while that did not yet understand what modern life, doing art for art's sake - but in principle this was a political [art]».

According to the artist, all their works created in those years, he threw. "I never thought I'd be so successful ... My first exhibition was held in 2004 in Bern. At that time he worked on the project in samizdat. By the time he managed to establish archives of Chinese Art Gallery and the Warehouse (with Hans van Dijk (Hans van Dijk)). In addition, he organized (with the Feng Fighting (Feng Boyi)) exhibit titled Fuck Off, which took place in 2000 in the Shanghai Gallery Eastlink. "I was unhappy with some of the exhibits [exhibition], but works of art are created not to make people happy. Taboo violated a few works - the exhibition was an ugly, bloody, brutal and nauseating, but not so far removed from reality. The reality in China for at least a million times worse ».

Aya latest work," sunflower seeds "(2009), consists of thousands of hand-made ceramic seeds. "Sunflower seeds reminiscent of communist times, when we share these seeds with friends" - he explains. The artist does not know yet whether he could in the future to organize exhibitions abroad: the Chinese government imposed restrictions on the export of works of art. This year Aya two large exhibitions - in the House of Art in Munich and the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, but the exhibits were shipped from China before the new rules take effect. "I think that if [the assessment of the situation] from the strategic point of view, it is very important period in Chinese history, [the State] must once again look for ways to explain their actions and even the [policy] last 20-30 years has been based on some sort of destructive , suicidal principles. Now they are trying to reach a higher level, but I think that in any society with a culture must be right - the state should not have the right to touch her, should have the right to publicize it, and should have the right to destroy it ».

article prepared by Julia Maksimova, AI

Sources: theartnewspaper.com , artinvestment.ru