Europe Ai Weiwei
AP-APTN-2330: Europe Ai Weiwei
Wednesday, 11 May 2011
STORY:Europe Ai Weiwei- REPLAY Artists campaign for release of Ai Weiwei as new exhibit opens
LENGTH: 02:30
FIRST RUN: 2130
RESTRICTIONS: AP Clients Only
TYPE: English/French/Nats
SOURCE: AP TELEVISION
STORY NUMBER: 688227
DATELINE: London/Paris, 11 May 2011/FILE
LENGTH: 02:30
AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY
SHOTLIST:
London, UK - 11 May 2011
1. Wide of poster of detained artist Ai Weiwei being put up on exterior of Lisson Gallery
2. Various Weiwei's work, Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads at Somerset House in central London
Paris, France - 11 May 2011
3. Close up of 'Leviathan', created by artist Anish Kapoor inside Grand Palais, pull out to wide shot people inside exhibit, which Kapoor has dedicated to Weiwei
4. Interior of 'Leviathan'
5. Various of people inside 'Leviathan' art work
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Jean de Loisy, Curator of Anish Kapoor's 'Leviathan' exhibit:
"Anish has done a political statement about Ai Weiwei that refers to the unbearable situation in which artists can be. You can't put an artist in jail for his work, for his ideas. And that's the statement of Anish Kapoor."
7. Wide shot hall of exterior of 'Leviathan'
8. People walking under art work
9. French flag seen through glass roof of the Grand Palais
10. Visitors looking at the exhibit
11. Tilt down of 'Leviathan'
12. SOUNDBITE (French) Jean de Loisy, Curator of Anish Kapoor's 'Leviathan' exhibit:
"Anish Kapoor reacts very often to political situations that are unacceptable, as well as to urban situations and economic issues, in England. But he is very supportive. He is calling for the solidarity of other artists, and that is why he made a statement to say that the imprisonment of Ai Weiwei by China seemed to him unacceptable."
13. Wide exterior of the Grand Palais museum
14. Poster hanging outside Grand Palais of 'Leviathan'
FILE:
Beijing, China - November 2010
15. Weiwei outside courthouse in support of fellow artist who was being tried there
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Ai Weiwei, Chinese artist:
"We come for support and we want to witness this very very typical court session which happens everywhere in China."
17. Wide of court house with people gathering outside
STORYLINE
Chinese artist Ai Weiwei may have vanished, presumed to be in detention in China, but the world is determined not to forget him.
More than a month after one of China's best-known contemporary artists was arrested while trying to board a flight to Hong Kong, his name, his face and his art have been highly visible across the globe.
China's communist rulers have steadfastly refused to say where Ai is or who's holding him. His colleagues in the international art world say they want to make sure he doesn't disappear from view.
In the UK, an exhibition of the artist's work previewed on Wednesday at Somerset House in central London, a high-profile venue in the English capital.
And in west London, at the Lisson Gallery, a two-storey-high black-and-white photograph of the artist has been mounted on its facade.
Elsewhere, "Release Ai Weiwei" reads a message inscribed on the top of London's Tate Modern, one of the country's most-visited galleries.
The Somerset House outdoor exhibition features 12 massive, open-mouthed bronze animal heads meant to recreate the traditional Chinese zodiac.
The heads, which were exhibited in New York before coming to London, are called "Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads," and are Ai's first major public sculpture installation.
The animal heads, several of them with playful expressions, each weigh about 800 pounds (362 kilograms) and measure 3 feet (1 metre) by 4 feet (1.2 metres). Each sits atop a narrow bronze column.
The Somerset House exhibition was planned in advance of Ai's arrest, but now is a de facto demonstration of solidarity with the 53-year-old artist, whose work has often ridiculed the ideology of China's one-party state.
In Paris on Monday, British sculptor Anish Kapoor dedicated his latest monumental work, entitled "Leviathan," to Ai - even though he acknowledged he'd never met him.
Speaking at the exhibition in the Grand Palais museum in the French capital, its curator Jean de Loisy, explained.
Kapoor's work, which resembles a gigantic inflatable plastic amoeba, was drawing the crowds on Wednesday.
In China, where Ai is thought to be held secretly by state security, activists have also raised their voices, but despite the growing outcry, China has refused to answer question about the artist's fate.
Ai was detained on April 3, and China's Foreign Ministry said he was under investigation for economic crimes, but his sister says he is being punished for speaking out about the communist leadership and social problems.
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APEX 05-11-11 1933EDT