Ai Weiwei adds to style "Gangnam" as critical to Beijing
26/10/2012.
[VIDEO] by Ai Weiwei
metalocus, INÉS LALUETA, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
metalocus, INÉS LALUETA, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
The video is called "Cao Ni Ma Style". This term literally means grass mud horse sounds like "to fuck your mother" and has been used by Internet users in China and by the same Ai to ridicule the strict control exercised by the Government on Internet.
Cao Ni Ma was conceived as a mythical animal similar to an alpaca, and has been used on other occasions by Ai. The artist has done nude photos (see, AI WEIWEI and pornography) Ai Weiwei and pornography), while jumping in the air with a stuffed animal that looks like a white alpaca covering his genitals. The placement of the animal in this strategic place evokes the phrase: "Cao Ni Ma Party Central Committee."
Ai Weiwei is a chinese conceptual artist, also works as an architect, photographer, curator and globally recognised human rights activist. Born in 1957 in Beijing, he began his training at Beijing Film Academy and later continued at the Parsons School of Design in New York City.
His work has been exhibited around the world with solo exhibitions at Stiftung DKM, Duisburg (2010); Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2009); Haus der Kunst, Munich (2009); Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, Cambelltown Arts Center, Sydney (2008); and the Groninger Museum, Groningen (2008), and participation in the 48th Venice Biennale in Italy (1999, 2008, 2010); Guangzhou Triennale in China (2002, 2005), Busan Biennial in Korea (2006), Documenta 12 in Germany (2007), and the 29th Sao Paulo Biennial in Brazil (2010). In October 2010, Ai Weiwei's "Sunflower Seeds" was installed in the Tate Modern Turbine Hall, London. Ai Weiwei participated in the Serpentine Gallery's China Power Station exhibition in 2006, and the Serpentine Gallery Map Marathon in 2010.
The last solo exhibitions included Ai Weiwei in the Chapel, on view at Yorkshire Sculpture Park through November 2, 2014; Evidence at the Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, 2014; and Ai Weiwei: According to What?, which was organized by the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, in 2009, and traveled to North American venues in 2013–14. Ai collaborated with architects Herzog & de Meuron on the “bird’s nest” stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympics and on the Serpentine Gallery, 2012 London. He has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent from the Human Rights Foundation in 2012.