Artist Ai Weiwei cancels Beijing show after "political" request

Feb 14, 2011, 12:09 GMT

Beijing - Chinese artist and human rights activist Ai Weiwei said Monday that he had cancelled a solo exhibition planned for a leading Beijing gallery after the organizers requested a delay because of the 'political sensitivity' of his work.

'My exhibition has been cancelled,' Ai said of the show planned at the Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art (UCCA).

'UCCA told me it would be postponed until October because it was too sensitive to show in March,' he told the German Press Agency dpa by telephone.

But Ai said he thought it would be 'more sensitive' to hold the show in October.

'And if my exhibition has to be shown under censorship, I'd rather just cancel it. It's meaningless,' he said.

Vivian Li, a public relations officer at the gallery, said it wanted to postpone Ai's exhibition partly because of political sensitivity during next month's annual session of the National People's Congress, the nominal parliament of the ruling Communist Party.

Li said the postponement was also because of scheduling problems between Ai and the gallery, which was founded by Belgian art collector Guy Ullens and his wife in 2007.

But Ai insisted he had 'no problem' with scheduling.

'It's a common situation in China. China has censored the arts for a long time,' he said, citing the recent closure of an arts magazine launched by popular writer Han Han.

'My studio in Shanghai has been demolished. You can see it's getting worse,' Beijing-based Ai said of the restrictions on artists and writers.

He earlier quoted a local official as saying the order to demolish his Shanghai studio last month had come from the central government.

Ai, 53, has become increasingly active in China's human rights movement in recent years.

In September 2009, he underwent surgery in Germany for a cerebral haemorrhage that he said was caused when he and other activists were attacked in his hotel in the central city of Chengdu during the trial of rights activist Tan Zuoren.

Tan and Ai have tried to determine how many children died when poorly constructed schools collapsed in the May 2008 Sichuan earthquake, which killed at least 80,000 people.

Police held the artist under house arrest in November to prevent him from staging a satirical feast at his Shanghai studio.

Ai has gained an international reputation for his wide range of artworks, installations and performances. He was an artistic consultant for the Bird's Nest Olympic stadium in Beijing.

Read more about China Culture

Read more about Politics