Artist talk | An Evening with Ai Weiwei

6 Apr 2023 7-8.15pm

Overview

On the evening before the exhibition Ai Weiwei: Making Sense opens to the public, join us for this special exhibition preview and talk. Design Museum Chief Curator Justin McGuirk will be in conversation with artist and activist Ai Weiwei to discuss how his new exhibition reflects thirty years of thinking and collecting.

Ai Weiwei is one of the most significant and recognised artists working today. Known around the world for his powerful art and activism, Ai does not differentiate between disciplines: his practice glides across art, architecture, design, film, collecting and curating.

His major solo exhibition at the Design Museum will be the first to present his work as a commentary on design.

This special evening is the first chance to see the exhibition and also to hear directly from Ai who will be in conversation with chief curator Justin McGuirk. Ai will explore how his obsessive collecting of historical artefacts over the last thirty years has shaped his thinking about design, making and his homeland, China. Their discussion will encompass how design is a language that communicates across huge time periods, the ways objects are a form of evidence and the ethics of handmade things. Ai will reflect on what the works in the exhibition mean to him, and how they embody the tensions between past and present, precious and worthless, hand and machine.

Please note: Tickets are now sold out.
 

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