First Thurday
September 5, 2013
Art Gallery of Ontario
An (un)expected block by the Chinese government prevented Ai Weiwei from joining a boisterous crowd of fans at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Chinese international censorship aside, the popular First Thursdays at the AGO arranged to have Ai Weiwei and AGO’s director and CEO Matthew Teitelbaum discuss art, politics, and exile via satellite chat.
AGO’s director and CEO Matthew Teitelbaum at the video chat
The interview was broadcast to a packed room of partygoers with special interview passes. For those who couldn’t get the coveted passes it was projected to an overflow audience in the beautiful Walker Court. Teitelbaum’s questions provoked discussions about the role of art in political protest, the meaning of exile, and Weiwei’s seemingly hereditary propensity for dissent. To listen to the video chat please go to: http://www.ago.net/5701.
Ai Weiwei is all smiles in AlvinHamilton Rm. in Bejing
The most probing question, though, was asked by Canada’s former Governor General Adrienne Clarkson who inquired whether Weiwei’s art and political stance would have been different if he had not lived in an oppressive, totalitarian state.
Canada’s former Governor General Adrienne Clarkson on the screen
Polaris-prize winning band Fucked Up served a fitting coup de grâce to state censorship. On a stage in Walker Court, they ripped apart the polite dinner conversations that followed the interview.
Fucked Up on stage with live visuals by Tasman Richardson
Text and Photo: Damir Malteric