Augmented Perspective references Ai Weiwei's series of photographs "Study of Perspective" allowing the visitors to superimpose the artist's middle finger onto the surrounding landscape.
Ai Weiwei
On April 3 2011, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was arrested at the Beijing airport while en route to Hong Kong. His papers and computers were seized and two of his assistants disappeared. To this date Ai's whereabouts remain unknown.
Ai Weiwei is an internationally regarded figure who is known for his provocative art, his commitment to freedom of speech and for being an outspoken critic of the Chinese Government. His arrest happens in the context of a larger crackdown on democracy activists and dissidents.
China at the Venice Biennale
The Chinese Pavilion is under direct control of the Chinese Goverment and doesn't represent the variety of contemporary art in the country. All the invited artists and the selection committee are closely connected with the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, an institution under the Department of Education.
While the international art community is mobilizing for the release of Ai Weiwei by pressuring Chinese authorities and demonstrating at embassies around the world, the Venice Biennale provides a central stage for goverment-endorsed Chinese art becoming, de facto, an accomplice of this unacceptable attack on freedom of expression.
Links
L'altra Cina in mostra alla Biennale
1001 Chairs for Ai Weiwei (Creative Time)
Call for the release of Ai Weiwei (Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation)
China: Release Artist and Critic Ai Weiwei (Human Right Watch)
Ai Weiwei, Study of Perspective (1995-2003)
Molleindustria 2011