Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case (2013)
Cast: Lao Ai, Weiwei Ai, Jerome A. Cohen
Director: Andreas Johnsen
Country: Denmark | China | UK
Genre: Documentary | Drama
Editor’s Note: Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case opens in Toronto today, May 16th, at Bloor Hot Docs Cinema – 506 Bloor St. W.
What really went on when legendary and iconic Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was arrested in China? This amazing documentary lays bare the artist’s life as it currently stands. Under the surveillance of the Chinese government after he was released from an 81 day jail sentence on 22nd June 2011, his arrest was made under the pretence of economic crimes. The key problem was that he vanished and the authorities didn’t inform his family. Ai Weiwei was granted bail due to his confessing of his crimes and good behaviour, but he was released a silenced man. His arrest was responded to internationally and political leaders called for his release alongside sustained protests from the art world.
This film acts as more of an exploration than an explanation of the artist. What it offers in a meditative and unique examination of what it’s really like to have the mindset that Ai Weiwei continuously exposes to the global art world.
Ai Weiwei is known for his outspoken commentaries on modernist China, where the Chinese government, modern cultural values and a humanist approach are the key themes and issues raised in his artwork. He’s a seminal artist that works in as many mediums as he can. With a background in structural architecture to the online media storm he creates when he speaks out against the human loss catastrophes that are being brushed under the rug of the Chinese governments global policies. His key pieces of work have spoken volumes to modern Chinese society and captured the imaginations of the countries his exhibitions and imagery have travelled.
His influential work spans generations of commentary on modern Chinese society and his humanitarian ideals. The sunflower seeds are most memorable for it’s taking over of the Tate Modern Museum London’s Turbine Hall in 2010. Filling the space with millions of hand crafted porcelain sunflower seeds, created by Chinese crafts people from an area that is renowned for its porcelain making. He was the central architect on the birds nest stadium for the 2010 Beijing Olympics but denounced the Olympics in Beijing due to the mass removal of nearby housing for the event taking place. It’s said that his art and his activism crosses boundaries and is often indistinguishable. Strong imagery is essential to his work, from a photo series of the artist smashing an ancient vase to make cultural statements on China’s history, to the installation of backpacks commemorating the deaths of schoolchildren in a Sichuan earthquake.
This isn’t the first feature documentary to reach our screens about the artist and activist Ai Weiwei, because in 2012, Never Sorry chronicled his life and works. This film acts as more of an exploration than an explanation of the artist. What it offers in a meditative and unique examination of what it’s really like to have the mindset that Ai Weiwei continuously exposes to the global art world. His life is dangerous and things have become different, more difficult, for him post-arrest. Previously fearless and full bodied in his approach to his art and activism, there’s a sense of caution in his forward planning that hangs like a dark cloud above his head. Exploring what really went on is clearly portrayed as having consequences, but what’s credible here is the ever burning desire to keep making art and speaking out.
Intimate and unassuming in its portrayal of the great man, Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case only holds his work as artist and activist higher in my opinions.
Intimate and unassuming in its portrayal of the great man, Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case only holds his work as artist and activist higher in my opinions. From the opening quotation ‘painting is not done to decorate apartments, it is an instrument of war’ by Pablo Picasso, the unbelievable story of Ai Weiwei’s present situation and involvement with the Chinese authorities spirals into an almost unbelievable narrative of truth searching. Be prepared for some astonishing and utterly confusing information on why the artist was or wasn’t reprimanded (opinion dependant). This is a wonderful documentary that genuinely gets to the heart of great documentary making by observing and exploring anything and everything surrounding its central theme. It leaves you with a thirst for knowledge, an impulsive greed for explanations and an appreciation of Ai Weiwei’s compromising future.
This is a wonderful documentary that genuinely gets to the heart of great documentary making by observing and exploring anything and everything surrounding its central theme. It leaves you with a thirst for knowledge, an impulsive greed for explanations and an appreciation of Ai Weiwei’s compromising future.
