MASTER OF PORCELAIN, WEIWEI’S WORKS NOW IN ISTANBUL
On the hot agenda of artistic spheres around the world, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has opened an exhibition in Istanbul, calling art lovers who want to see his porcelain artwork that mingle traditional art with modern interventions
Chinese artist Ai Weiwei’s porcelain works are featured in Istanbul for the first time with an exhibition at Sabancı University’s Sakıp Sabancı Museum. Symbolizing a perfect mix of traditional art with a modern touch, the exhibition will run until Jan. 28, 2018
LOCATED on the shore of the Bosporus, Sabancı University’s Sakıp Sabancı Museum hosts the first exhibition of sensational Chinese artist Ai Weiwei in Turkey. A large collection of the artist’s previous works along with new ones are being presented in the exhibition, which opened yesterday and will run until Jan. 28, 2018.
Focusing on Ai Weiwei’s porcelain works, the exhibition narrates both the life story of the artist and his approach to handcraft tradition and art history. Every stage of Ai Weiwei’s journey in porcelain is represented by iconic works in the exhibition.
The artist transfers messages about today’s world to us via traditional Chinese handicrafts, and his art provides spectators a perspective on the paradoxes of our age.
The exhibition presents an extensive view on the artist’s perspective with works that have a unique structure produced by a repetition of the themes.
Questioning the concepts of authenticity, changing value systems and cultural history, the works of the artist call everyone to discover the cultural, artistic and historical values in question.
Installing prepared objects of cultures in his works, Ai Weiwei gives spectators the opportunity to see how objects, according to their contexts, could be evaluated with values totally different from each other.
The exhibition functions as a door to fundamental questions about authenticity, the transformation of value systems throughout the different eras and the role of art in influencing social change.
Ai Weiwei treats Chinese porcelain as a material infused with meanings relating to both history and the present day, and he uses traditional forms and idioms in current debates.
“Ai Weiwei on Porcelain” offers a comprehensive selection of methods that are used as determining ele- ments in his porcelain works.
The exhibition focuses on Ai Weiwei’s prolific journey in porcelain production and presents his iconic works. His work “Sunflower Seeds” is a good example of how he uses both the connection of porcelain production with history and interpretations of the contemporary state of porcelain as a material.
One of his iconoclastic works, “Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn,” illustrates different transformation methods to question current value systems.
His other works “Blue and White Porcelain Plates” and “Stacked Porcelain Vases as a Pillar,” which Ai Weiwei produced for the Istanbul exhibition, stimulate ideas about the current crisis by making a reference to ancient Greek and Egyptian carvings and ceramics.
Ai Weiwei confutes the difference between the authentic object and its replica by questioning the concept of authenticity in his replica works.
In light of antiques these days, the artist reflects on history by adapting the logic of Chinese and Greek pot decorations and of Egyptian wall paintings, and he presents an extensive perspective about the world.
A program of workshops, children’s educational sessions, conferences and panels will take a comprehensive look at Ai Weiwei’s art throughout the “Ai Weiwei on Porcelain” exhibition.
The first of these activities is a talk by the artist and a conversation about his art production methods with Sir Norman Rosenthal, former director of the Royal Academy of Arts in London, at 6 p.m. today.
Ai Weiwei’s exhibition in the SU Sakıp Sabancı Museum will shine as a unique atmosphere where spectators can discover the works of this authentic artist with an extensive collection of porcelain, in which the first work dates 40 years and has more than 100 works.