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| China-SS, you suck! (Free Ai Weiwei remix) | Iphone sketch, 2011 |
So at the airport the Chinese government just takes him away and for days nobody knows where they keep him.
Think about that. How would you feel, if this happened to you? Or anybody from your family?
I watched swing kids the other day with Daniel. The Nazis, they took people away over night. We were both fighting tears over this movie. The communists, they would have taken away my grandfather, if he wouldn't have fled over night, same day he heard, with 20 bucks in his pocket for a whole family to start a new life in West-Germany.
Ai Weiwei is speaking up. And big time, and what he says is important, and right. Nobody of any political view can doubt that. How can the world remotely tolerate, that he gets put in detention like that? What are they doing to him there? Are they smart enough not to harm him?
This same terror happens to many people every day in all different countries. Unfortunately lots of them are not famous. How is that the hell possible?
Ai Weiwei happens to be a hero - artists and art-lovers know that, but contemporary art is not so present in the main stream. Well in fact, when I stumbled in one of his sunflower-seed piles at Art Basel Miami, and the gallery security stormed at me "Don't touch the art, ahh, ahh, ohh!" They got it really wrong, too.
Ai Weiwei wants people to step on the millions of hand-painted porcelain sunflower seeds, that Chinese artisans produced over 3 I think years for a buck fifty a month. Hear it, feel it, step on it! At Tate Modern that's what visitors were supposed to do. How does it feel? How does it feel to discover beauty on top of sweatshop work art exploitation non-democratic hand-crafted mass production?
And you know, from what I see in interviews and videos and performances, Ai Weiwei is a funny man. Humble. He makes billions and billions and rightfully so. He spends them on raising awareness for the bullshit in his country. He gives it back to his folks.
He made that birdsnest for the Chinese Olympics. And he boycotted his own art, because it was abused by propaganda and he hadn't known. Well, he got seriously popular - not in his own country, they don't let him, here in the West. That is great! It hit the right person. A single man making such a big difference, that is great. He's a hero. He really is. And I truly believe in changing the world via art. Why else would I work on social sculpture? Art collectors should give him all their money. I'm all for it.
But for now, just free him. How do you think does it feel? When they take your freedom, when you can't even talk to your family and assure them that it'll be fine, even if you don't know yourself? How do you think does it feel, when you need to fear for days, and a minute becomes eternity? When you need to hold on to your will that nothing and no wrong institution will break you? How do you think is Ai Weiwei feeling for the last 100 hours?
I want to abduct and torture every single one of you! In a nice way, in a consensual way, in a playful and non-harming way. You know, just pushing it a little, just inflicting pain, that doesn't really hurt, just scaring you a tiny bit, just giving you a bit of an impression. This is very doable. This can be done in a safe way. Contact me for your customized experience. I'm dead serious.
How does it feel? If we would know, it would not exist. What do we know and when do we start knowing?
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