Get well soon Ai Wei Wei
September 24th, 2009 | by awinston |News Junkie is trying very hard to catch up with all the interesting news after a week without Internet access, television or newspapers.
There appears to be some movement on Atlantic Yards with a Russian Oligarch stepping in the secure the development’s future, but further discussion of Russian oligarchs will have to wait til a later date.
More distressing is the news that Ai Wei Wei, one of China’s best known artists and architects, has received emergency brain surgery in Munich.
“According to Ai, the bleeding was a delayed consequence of being beaten by Chinese police on August 12. Since that time he has suffered from headaches and has been unable to concentrate; the pain grew worse during a trip to Germany, where he’s scheduled to open a sprawling exhibition of his work at the Haus der Kunst in Munich on Oct. 11. On Monday, two holes were drilled into Ai’s head at a Munich hospital to relieve the pressure on his brain,” reports ArtInfo.
Never one to shy away from shining a light on the bad behaviour of his country’s officials, Wei Wei has apparently been twittering pictures of himself in hospital.
This is frankly quite shocking. After all, this is the man who worked with Herzog & de Meuron on China’s newest favourite icon, the Bird’s Nest Stadium. He should be a national treasure.
There a hundreds, if not thousands, of architects from American, the UK and Europe currently working on projects in China. Some have suggested that there might be some ethical issues that should be considered by those architects (remember this Libeskind rant? Or this debate piece with The Architect’s Newspaper editor Bill Menkin?).
Perhaps this will renew the debate in the architectural community - it really should. But will anything change? Not unless more architects stick to their idealistic guns and prove to everyone that they care about more than money. Even if it’s only protecting their own.
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