Ai Weiwei Exhibit Berlin

PATRICK
Apr 5, 2014
2 min read

This is a photo that I took of the Ai WeiWei Exhibit in Berlin. I must say that it was strange (in a good way) experience. I was finally getting some much needed downtime , after working long hours in Frankfurt, coupled with a 24 Hour self guided tour of Paris. I left Paris to travel to Berlin to meetup with friends. I was staying near "Check Point Charlie" at some boutique hotel that seemed oddly situated, given its proximity to the dismantled Berlin Wall. Here I was staying at a swanky hotel, when 30 years prior... I leave that for another conversation. That next morning, I left out of my hotel with no plan other than a a determination to explore. Two blocks away from where my hotel was located was the Ai WeiWei Exhibit. I originally intended to see Ai WeiWei's "Evidence" exhibition, at the Hirshhorn Museum in DC, but I was a few days early and missed the exhibition. However, I did manage to see some of the installations that were located in the common area's of the gallery.

It was surreal to stumble upon the very same artist's exhibition that I wanted to see in the states , in Berlin. It was familiar and strange all at the same time. I bought my ticket and was amazed.

"We always knew Ai Weiwei was a fan of Marcel Duchamp. The Chinese artist's massive bicycle sculptures made reference to both a mode of transport commonly associated with Chinese peasantry, and also Duchamp's first readymade, Bicycle Wheel (1913), consisting of the front forks and wheel of a bike fitted into a wooden stool." --excerpt from Phaidon... http://www.phaidon.com/about-phaidon/

"Despite all the incredible hostility shown him in his own country Ai Weiwei decided to put on his largest one-man exhibition yet in Berlin’s Martin-Gropius-Bau. On 3,000 square metres in 18 rooms and the spectacular Lichthof he will be displaying works and installations which were either designed for the Martin-Gropius-Bau or have not yet been shown in Germany." --Berliner Festspiele supported by the Capital Cultural Fund Berlin.