Haus Der Kunst - on the occasion of ai weiwei

on the occasion of ai weiwei:
art, dissidence and resistance
panel discussion in english
27 jul 11 / wed 7 p.m.
western countries are demanding a transparent trial according to constitutional standards for the artist ai weiwei and other artists, authors and dissidents who are still imprisoned. the chinese foreign ministry, for its part insists on the sovereignty of china’s judicial system. can the gap between such contradictory positions be bridged? the panel at the haus der kunst will be discussing the case of ai weiwei – not as an isolated phenomenon, however, but rather as part of the geopolitical developments of the past few years. this, however, raises the question of the credibility of the western-oriented, international art system: on the one hand it demands universal freedom of opinion, and supports dissident artists through petitions, protests and calls for their release. on the other hand, has it not engaged in some complicity with autocratic systems? isn't tacit tolerance of the ruling, despotic elite in the country implicit in events like the sharjah biennial.
the Chinese artist ai weiwei, whose exhibition "so sorry" was shown by the haus der kunst in 2009/10, was arrested on 3 april 2011. chinese authorities alleged "economic crimes" as the reason for his arrest, but no evidence has been offered to date to support the charge. ever since his release on 22 june, the artist has been under house arrest, is prohibited from using the internet and from giving long interviews, and may not leave Beijing for a year.

with hou hanru (san francisco art institute), gao minglu (university of pittsburgh), shi ming (deutsche welle tv), flora sapio (Centre for Advanced Studies on Contemporary China, Turin) and ulrich wilmes (senior curator at the haus der kunst)
moderation: okwui enwezor (director of the haus der kunst as of 10/2011)


hou hanru studied art history in beijing. today he is a professor at the san francisco art institute. in 2007 he curated the 10th international Istanbul biennial and has published in flash art international and art monthly.

gao minglu studied art history in beijing and Cambridge. in 1998 he curated the first comprehensive exhibition of contemporary Chinese art in the usa ("inside/out: new Chinese art”). he teaches history of art and architecture at the university of pittsburgh.

shi ming studied german and law in beijing, worked for many years as a journalist with radio china and has been with the chinese service of radio deutsche welle since 2002.

Flora Sapio received her PhD in Chinese Studies in 2004. She worked at the Centre for East and South East Asian Studies at Lund University, Sweden, and is now a research fellow at the Centre for Advanced Studies on Contemporary China, Turin, and a visiting professor at the Julius-Maximilian University in Würzburg, Germany. Her main research interests are, a.o., criminal justice, administrative detention and extra-judicial violence. She is one of the founding members of the European China Law Studies Association.

ulrich wilmes began his career in 1988 as head of exhibitions at the portikus in Frankfurt/main. after holding a variety of posts, notably at the lenbachhaus in Munich and the museum ludwig in cologne, he became senior curator at the haus der kunst in 2008.

okwui enwezor was the artistic director of numerous large-scale exhibitions, notably the documenta 11 in kassel (1998–2002). throughout his career, he has worked hard to shift the international art business away from its fixation on the euro-american context. at the present time, he is the artistic director of meeting points 6, a project for performance and the visual arts in eight cities (Beirut, amman, Damascus, cairo, tunis, tangiers, brussels and berlin). on october 1, 2011, he will become the new director of the haus der kunst.