Exposition Ai Wei Wei absent – Taipei fine arts museum

The solo exhibition Ai Weiwei absent at Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM) is the artist’s first large-scale solo exhibition to be held in the ethnic Chinese world. Ai Weiwei (1957–) is a well-known contemporary artist and the object of considerable attention in the international art world. From conceptual art to architectural design, installation, social criticism and action, his works reveal a diverse, open-minded orientation and prodigious artistic energy.

Ai Weiwei absent presents 21 sets of artwork, spanning a period from 1983 to 2011, encompassing a variety of forms such as installation and video, and using a variety of materials such as ceramics, marble, antique utensils and bicycles. It also includes a series of over 100 photographic works that the artist took during his early years in New York’s East Village and in Beijing’s Dong Cun. In addition, Circle of Animals, the artist’s first large-scale work of public art, recently on display at the behest of the New York City government, will encircle the main lobby of Taipei Fine Arts Museum. These twelve bronze sculptures ten times larger than life are reproductions of the zodiac heads once found in China’s imperial Yuanming Gardens. Conceptually, they consider the relationship between genuineness and imitation, their value, and how value is interpreted, and misinterpreted, in present-day politics and society.

The artist’s most recent work, Forever Bicycles, created specially for this exhibition, is composed of nearly 1200 bicycles and installed in an exhibition space 10 meters high. The labyrinthine structure of multiple overlapping layers of bikes, like an abstract form in motion, symbolizes the state of constant change in China’s society and environment. Employing the largest number of bicycles of any Ai Weiwei bicycle installation to date, it is certain to become a focal point of attention.

Taipei Fine Arts Museum
29 October 2011–29 January 2012
181, Section 3, ZhongShan North Road
Taipei, 10461, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Ph: +886 2 2595 7656
info@tfam.gov.tw

www.tfam.museum