VISITING GERMANY: BERLIN – CULTURE – Martin-Gropius-Bau – Exhibition Ai Weiwei – 150.000 visitors / Evidence extended

The exhibition Ai Weiwei – Evidence at the Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin is a great success: In this week the show will have its 150.000th visitor. Reason enough for the exhibition organizers to extend the show for one week. Therefore the exhibition can be visited daily till the 13th of July.

Ai Weiwei is one of the most internationally renowned Chinese artists. The Berlin show is its largest one-man exhibition he has ever done. The majority of the works and installations were designed specifically for the Martin-Gropius-Bau.

The exhibition can only be seen in Berlin. The Martin-Gropius-Bau serves as a venue for temporary exhibitions of international standing such as the show of the Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur-Eliasson: Innen Stadt Aussen (2010) or the solo-exhibition of Anish Kapoor (2013). The imposing building was built in 1881 in the style of an Italian Renaissance building.

The impressive atrium is the centre of the museum's exhibitions; For the artrium, Ai Weiwei has assembled 6,000 simple wooden stools of the type that have been used in the Chinese countryside since the 14th century. The result is an aesthetically pixel-like installation, that tells about the changing society in China.

Despite all the incredible hostility shown him in his own country Ai Weiwei decided to put on his largest one-man exhibition yet in Berlin's Martin-Gropius-Bau. On 3,000 square metres in 18 rooms and the spectacular Lichthof he will be displaying works and installations which were either designed for the Martin-Gropius-Bau or have not yet been shown in Germany.

The name he has given to his exhibition is “Evidence”, a term well known beyond the English-speaking world from American TV crime series in the meaning of proof that will stand up in court. It is a political exhibition that Ai Weiwei has designed for Berlin in his simple and spacious studio in the rural outskirts of Beijing.

Ai Weiwei – Evidence
Up to July 13th daily 10:00 – 20:00
Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin

Further information about the exhibition under www.gropiusbau.de/ai_weiwei.

Christiane Zippel