Ai Weiwei - Rapture

 Exhibition view Rapture

                                      

On 4th of June, the largest exhibition to date as well as the first exhibition in Portugal of Ai Weiwei opened the doors to the public and will be on view until 28th of November 2021 at Cordoaria Nacional, a former rope factory in Belem, Lisboa. 

Before even entering the exhibition any slightly art-interested person undoubtedly knows Ai Weiwei’s work. Indeed his reputation as a scandalous exiled chinese artist who makes political polemics his own business made him internationally renowned. Now that he is living in Portugal, after Germany and England, he seems to have fallen in love, like so many of us, with this country and has chosen Lisbon for his biggest exhibition to date.

On the special website conceived for the exhibition aiweiwei.pt we read that he is “displaying for the first time all of his most iconic work in the same space and at the same time, while presenting four new pieces produced exclusively in Portugal.” 

As an exiled artist living and working in different cultures, his relationship with freedom, human rights and the question of belonging has become the red thread throughout his career and life. And with him now living in Portugal, “Rapture” reminds us of a turning point, almost as if the exhibition was representing the landing in a safe harbour where the artist can look back and reflect.

“Rapture is the transcendent moment connecting the bodily and the spiritual dimensions. At the same time, rapture is the hijacking of someone’s rights and freedoms. Rapture may also be the sensory enthusiasm for ecstasy.” (exhibition text)

                                                Forever Bicycles  (2015)

When approaching the Cordoaria Nacional on my bike, ironically, I am welcomed by a stack of shiny bicycles accompanied by a group of  people squeezing their heads together while one is stretching out his arm to get the best selfie beneath this monumental entrance piece. The Forever Bicycles from 2015 is the biggest monumental work by Weiwei with 960 stainless steel bicycles stacked on top of each other. They represent the freedom and social status bikes gave people when bikes were still a rare luxury and with their ready made structure speak to any audience.This work also announces Ai Weiwei’s love for repetitions, commercial production methods and just his talent for big impressions. Whoever is not only attracted by the mesmerizing repetitive aesthetic design, might also be brought to reflect on our relationship with speed and mass consumption and mass production. 

Odyssey Tile (2021)

Entering the exhibition space, the visitors have the choice to go into the left wing or the right wing. In the first instance it felt more like entering a big depot than an exhibition, literally feeling like Ai Weiwei just arrived with a ship full of art works, placing them in this storage where they wait for their next adventure. There are no additional walls breaking or guiding the view of the audience. The vision field freely ripples through all the artworks straight towards the walls at each end of the wings. While on one end one can see the more recent works of Life Cycle from 2018 and Odyssey Tile from 2021, on the other end, the Law of The Journey (Prototype B) from 2016 is combined with the Odyssey of 2016.

Marcello Dantas, curator of this exhibition writes in the introduction:

“My initial proposal to Ai Weiwei was to try to use the method that he had developed in China: to activate artisans and local communities, calling on their ancestral techniques for the production of vigorous contemporary art and on unprecedented scales, enhancing the connection of lost knowledge with his strategic thinking, able to relate in a unique way the signs of both Western and Eastern cultures. Ai Weiwei invented a hybrid language that can speak to both sides of the world in different ways from the same vector. This duality of meanings is for me the richest moment in his work.” 

This project of creating four new works connecting Ai Weiwei to his new country is indeed, to me too the strongest of all the exhibitions. In Odyssey Tile one can see a fusion of cultures and years of research on the migration of people throughout history. These four works elevate the relevance of this exhibition not only for his current reality on his journey but also legitimizes his presence in this place (Portugal) he is exhibiting in. 

Quote next to Circle of Animals / Zodiac Heads (2018)

Besides these two mirroring walls with their boats, the exhibition is divided into a back long wall and a front long wall. While the back wall is reserved for Ai’s ‘search for the imaginary’, the front wall focuses on ‘reality and the emergency of issues that overflow in our lives with the worsening of human conditions for political, social and environmental reasons’ writes Dantas. On the imaginary side we see an enormous series of middle fingers and the Circle of Animals / Zodiac Heads not in a circle but in a line with very little or no explanation. On the reality side, we find a long line of videos on political topics as well as the six maquettes of his cell from the time he was in captivity for 81 days. This side, contrary to the other, is swamped with deep messages and meanings and makes it impossible to see all that they exhibit. This juxtaposition, although representing Ai Weiwei’s versatile practice, in my opinion weakens both of the messages. The fact that they opted for both leads to the questioning of his reliability and honesty is leaving us confused. 

Study of Perspective (1995-2011)

Finally, Rapture is an interesting introductory retrospective exhibition of Ai Weiwei’s body of work, leading us through a tasting of his vast and versatile practice, however, it does not hold together as a concept exhibition. Although curated roughly into sections, the thematic discussions dissolve into a whole and often miss to reinforce each other. This may lessen the individual artwork's message as a standalone piece. In other words, Rapture is saying everything, shouting even, all that Ai Weiwei ever had to say to the world. Ai Weiwei indeed does not lack loudness, giving plenty of opportunity for instagramable photoshoots. Beneath his visually impressive art works, lie valid provocations on illegal immigration, human rights, the question of home, detention, culture and occasional perversion. However, the very serious political topics call for a more comprehensive and reliable stand by the artist. The visitors are left in the dark when it comes to questions like ‘does he put himself into the same position as illegal refugees?’, ‘does he do the activism to nurture his art or is he trying to actively change the political problems? or even ‘Is he even free in his art?’ And in all of this, we leave the exhibition with a feeling of confusion, a bitter aftertaste, feeling a little bit perverted and not knowing what information to take home from this.