Art and political activism Chinese artist Ai Weweiinternationally recognized as one of the most important multidisciplinary artists in the world, arrives at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Castilla y León (MUSAC) in a macro-exhibition that brings together his art over the last two decades and which can be visited until May 18, 2025 in the Leonese capital.
A sample under the title ‘Ai Weiwei. Don Quixote’ brings together 44 works over 1,700 square meters with large format works, a selection of works made with LEGO building blocks and films and videos in which he addresses themes such as freedom of expression, migration crises and defense of human rights.
During the presentation organized this Friday in León, the artist, dissident of the Chinese communist regime and exile, was accompanied by the Minister of Culture, Tourism and Sports, Gonzalo Santonja, and the director of MUSAC and curator of the exhibition , Álvaro Rodriguez. Fominaya.
Ai Weiwei (Beijing, 1957) emphasized during the presentation his interest in everything around him with particular attention to the unstoppable technological development and its impact on the rights and freedoms of society, as well as its impact on the art.
Ai Weiwei exhibition at Musac de León
In this regard, he stated that “Effectiveness is not as important in art as memories or feelingsso I don’t think artificial intelligence will have as much impact as in other areas.
The artist’s exhibition stands out for the dimensions of certain pieces and was specially designed for the MUSAC rooms, which, due to their dimensions, make it possible to accommodate some of Ai Weiwei’s most monumental works.
The artist expressed his gratitude to the institutions which made possible the mounting of this major exhibition which “is only possible on a stage of the size and space of MUSAC”.
Merging art and activism
Some of his pieces are new, others are seeing the light of day for the first time in a museum or are exhibited in Europe by a “key creator of the international art scene, recognized for his ability to fuse art and political activism”, as the underlines he describes it.
An artist who reinterprets art in his colossal LEGO works, and who conveys “an idea, a concept” in each work. For the artist, these pieces “are the perfect tool to question the political and aesthetic past of art”, who uses this material to version masterpieces of art history.
To find the origin of Don Quixote, which gives its title to the exhibition, we must go back to Ai Weiwei’s childhood. His father, the poet Ai Quing, also suffered reprisals from the Chinese government, Among his books he had an edition of Cervantes’ masterpiece.
The extravagant couple formed by Don Quixote and Sancho Panza awakened his child’s imagination and made him understand that an entire world of fantasy could be conceived, beyond the Maoist doctrine which dictated that everything was consistent with logic and to rationality.
