Among the works - a replica bronze heads of rats and rabbits, because of which last year broke an international scandal

famous Chinese artist and dissident Ai (Ai Weiwei) presented at the Biennial in Sao Paulo (25 September - 12 December) the next hot project. This installation, entitled "Circle of beasts", which consists of replicas of the zodiac figures, stolen in a XIX century of the Imperial Palace Yuanminyuan. The author draws attention to the fact that out of twelve sculptures still managed to return a total of five. Several figures have been lost, and they know very little - Ayu himself had to think out how they could look like.

Eighteen months ago, the original members of the band heads of rats and rabbits at the center of a large international scandal. The current owner, a French businessman Pierre Berge (Pierre Bergé), put them at Christie's auction - the sale of the collection, gathered them together with her lover, Yves Saint Laurent (Yves Saint-Laurent). Chinese authorities tried to force it to withdraw the work from the auction and bring them home, but Berger said that for that China should learn to respect human rights. The last word, however, remained a Celestial: winner of the auction, a collector Minskers Tsai (Cai Mingchao), refused to pay for sculpture , declaring his act an act of patriotism.

What Ai Weiwei has decided to re-create these sculptures, it is not surprising. In his works, he often points out how powerful emotional charge have historical monuments and antiquities - is well aware of those who use them for their political games. Aya ability accurately and very "hit in a sore spot" has made it one of the most notable artists on the international museum scene: the confirmation of this can serve as such major projects as last year's retrospective in Munich and installation in the Turbine Hall of London's Tate Modern gallery. As to the "Circle of beasts", it also has a great tour: first, the installation will go to New York, then to California (Museum of Art Los Angeles County) and Washington (Hirschhorn Museum). In 2012, it will see in a museum in London. By the way, there are sculptures (made in the amount of ten pieces each) of 500 thousand dollars - quite a reasonable compared to the originals (Tsai Minsk residents had to pay for the rat and rabbit 40 million!) In addition to large figures, Hay presented a still small, of the leaf gold price of around 200 thousand apiece.

material was prepared by Julia Maksimova, AI

Sources: theartnewspaper.com , artinvestment.ru