AUT - Al WeiWei - Fairytale
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Al WeiWei - Fairytale
AI WEIWEI - FAIRYTALE
A Documenatary Film Screeening
Monday November 17, 2008 at 6.30pm
AUT Lecture Theatre WE 240
This documentary offers insights into Ai Weiwei’s large scale, multi-faceted project Fairytale, following the project from concept to realisation. In 2007 Weiwei invited and enabled the free passage of 1001 people to travel from China to documenta 12, the major survey of contemporary art held in the small German town of Kassel every five years.
Fairytale involved 1001 people, who travelled in groups of 200 at a time to stay in Kassel for a period of one week. The “tourists,” as Weiwei calls them, were to act as both viewers of the documenta exhibition and as participants in Weiwei’s art work. They came from a range of walks of life in China, from those connected with the art world, to farmers from the provinces.
“I considered the whole process from the very beginning: to design the trip and activities for the tourists, to hope to get their passports, their visas, their insurance and air tickets, to organize the place where they can live in Kassel, to hire cooks, make products which are connected to the journey and would be needed for it, such as a warehouse, beds, cupboards, luggageI see the whole process as the work itself,” says Weiwei.
This documentary offers insights into Weiwei’s working process, encompassing the energy, scale and complexities of his project and the hurdles encountered along the way. The project deals with individuals, their lives and hopes. Each traveller was interviewed during the preparations answering 99 questions, such as “Can art change the world,” “What is a fairytale?” and “Do you believe in evolution.”
Living conditions in China are the backdrop to this documentary, the first part of the film explores the state of contemporary China from which these participants hope to escape, if only temporarily. The western concept of China based on its growing economic power and media manipulation is one of the “fairytales” addressed here.
“There is such hype around China. There are a lot of fantasies and concern about this country. I think that now it’s time that all these fantasies about life and art can meet.” says Weiwei
The sense of wonderment and possibility offered to the participants by the opportunity to leave China for even a short time is complimented by the imagery which has been described as breathtaking, from the opening sequence in Weiwei’s workshop of workers bathed in light as they restore the 1001 Ming dynasty chairs that accompany the group to Kassel to extraordinary vistas of the Chinese landscape.
Ai Weiwei was born in Beijing, China. He studied at the Beijing Film Academy and the Parsons School of Design. He was the founder of China Art Archives where he worked as an Art Director. He has developed significant projects for documenta 12, Museum of Modern Art Belgium, The Serpentine Gallery, Busan Bienniale, and Tate Modern, to name but a few from an extensive list of group, and one-person shows in Asia, Europe, and North America. He lives and works in China.
Thanks are extended to Weiwei’s archive for giving permission for this work to be screened in Auckland and to the City Gallery in Wellington for making the Auckland screening possible.
Film Duration : 152 mins
AUT Lecture Theatre WE 240
Entry: Diagonally Opposite St Paul St Gallery and Down The Stairs
