Mountains and seas by Ai Weiwei in Château La Coste [II/II]

The intervention of Ai Weiwei in Château La Coste did not end with "Ruyi Path". It was only the beginning of this new intervention titled Mountains and seas!

Mountains and seas by Ai Weiwei in Château La Coste, France. Image © Wearecontent(s)

Parallel to the landscape intervention we previously published, the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has developed this other intervention at Château La Coste which will provide a broader sense of the artist's work and will contextualize the intervention of Ruyi Path within his works.

Description of the project by Château La Coste

To mark the completion of this project, Ai Weiwei is mounting an exhibition at Château La Coste that will provide a broader sense of the artist’s work and contextualize the Ruyi Path within his practice. The works to be exhibited are made using traditionel kite-making techniques and employ a wide range of references to Chinese mythology and Ai Weiwei’s own life experiences. Created just before the summer of 2015, when Ai Weiwei’s passport was returned following his detention and subsequent four years of travel restrictions, the works draw from this turbulent period.

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Ai Weiwei

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.