Ai Weiwei
Docu­mentary Marathon

SALT Beyoğlu, Walk-in Cinema

When discussing new content with Ai Weiwei for the second edition of the exhibition Taiping Tianguo, the works Wooden Cuffs (2012) and Hanger (2012) were selected. These two sculptural pieces refer to Ai Weiwei’s period of incarceration and are premiered in the exhibition at SALT Beyoğlu. In addition, Ai Weiwei proposed that the following five documentaries be screened during the run of Taiping Tianguo to give further context to his artistic practice and political actions. To launch this series of screenings a full day program at the Walk-in Cinema will be dedicated to Ai Weiwei’s documentaries on May 18.

Further screenings of these documentaries, as well as Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry (2012) will take place throughout the run of the exhibition Taiping Tianguo on view at SALT Beyoğlu from May 8 until August 11.

Ordos 100
2011, 60 minutes
Chinese with English subtitles

Ordos 100 is a construction project curated by Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei. In 2008 they invited 100 architects to each design a villa to be built for a new imagined community in Inner Mongolia. The project remains unrealized.

Fairytale
2007, 152 minutes
Chinese, English and German with English subtitles

Fairytale documents Ai Weiwei’s project of the same name for the exhibition dOCUMENTA 12, 2007. Ai invited 1001 Chinese citizens from different generations and backgrounds to travel to Germany to experience their own fairytale for 28 days.

One Recluse
2010, 186 minutes
Chinese with English subtitles

The documentary One Recluse traces the reasons and motivations behind Yang Jia’s murder of six police officers in 2008 and the subsequent disappearance of his mother. It goes on to investigate a trial process filled with shady cover-ups and questionable decisions.

Disturbing the Peace
2009, 79 minutes
Chinese with English subtitles

Following the Sichuan earthquake of 2008, environmentalist and journalist Tan Zuoren asked families to help create a database of lost and injured children: the “5.12 Student Archive.” As a result of this project and his criticism of the poor building construction of Sichuan’s schools, Zuoren was charged with “inciting subversion of state power.” Disturbing the Peace follows an incident during Zuoren’s trial on August 12, 2009.

So Sorry
2011, 55 minutes
Chinese and English with English subtitles

Produced as a sequel to Disturbing the Peace, the film So Sorry shows the investigation led by Ai Weiwei Studio to identify the students who died during the Sichuan earthquake of 2008. During his research Ai was confronted and beaten by the Chengdu police, later suffering a brain hemorrhage that required emergency surgery. These events mark the beginning of Ai’s struggle with the Chinese Government and his ongoing surveillance at the hands of the state police.