April 13, 2011

SFMOMA joins museums around the world to support the release of artist Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei. From Wikimedia Commons

FROM THE GUGGENHEIM:

In response to the recent arrest and detainment of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei in Beijing, the Guggenheim has launched an online petition to express concern for Ai’s freedom and call for his release.

In response to the recent arrest and detainment of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei in Beijing, the Guggenheim has launched an online petition to express concern for Ai’s freedom and call for his release. Leading museums around the world have joined and launched the online petition through their Web sites, Twitter, and Facebook sites, including the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD); Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate, London; Gwangju Biennale, Korea; and the Musée national d’art moderne/Centre de création industrielle, Paris. We sincerely hope that our collective action using Ai Weiwei’s favored medium of social sculpture will promote Ai’s liberty and the principle of free creative expression.
See the Guggenheim’s online petition calling for Ai Weiwei’s release.

Share this petition on Twitter and Facebook.

OVERVIEW
On April 3, internationally acclaimed Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was detained at the Beijing airport while en route to Hong Kong, and his papers and computers were seized from his studio compound.

We members of the international arts community express our concern for Ai’s freedom and disappointment in China’s reluctance to live up to its promise to nurture creativity and independent thought, the keys to “soft power” and cultural influence.

Our institutions have among the largest online museum communities in the world. We have launched this online petition to our collective millions of Facebook fans and Twitter followers. By using Ai Weiwei’s favored medium of “social sculpture,” we hope to hasten the release of our visionary friend and artist.

Richard Armstrong, Director, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, and Alexandra Munroe, Samsung Senior Curator of Asian Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Michael Govan, Director, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Kaywin Feldman, President, Association of Art Museum Directors, and Director and President, Minneapolis Institute of Arts

Glenn Lowry, Director, Museum of Modern Art, New York

Yongwoo Lee, President, The Gwangju Biennale Foundation

Vishakha Desai, President, and Melissa Chiu, Vice President, Global Arts, Asia Society

Sir Nicholas Serota, Director, Tate, and Chris Dercon, Director, Tate Modern

Jim Cuno, President and Director, Art Institute of Chicago

Julián Zugazagoitia, Director, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City

Ann Philbin, Director, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles

Olga Viso, Director, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

Alfred Pacquement, Director, Musée national d’art moderne/Centre de création industrielle, Paris

Arnold Lehman, Director, Brooklyn Museum

Jill Medvedow, Director, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston

Julia Peyton-Jones, Director, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, Co-director of Exhibitions and Programmes and Director of International Projects, Serpentine Gallery, London

Poul Erik Tøjner, Director, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark

Nathalie Bondil, Director and Chief Curator, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

Neal Benezra, Director, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

List in formation

PETITION LETTER

To the Honorable Minister Mr. Cai Wu
Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China

CALL FOR THE RELEASE OF AI WEIWEI

Our museums are members of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) and the International Committee of ICOM for Museums and Collections of Modern Art (CIMAM), a non-governmental organization with formal relations with UNESCO. On April 6, CIMAM sent a communiqué calling for the release of Ai Weiwei. Our museums, foundations, and communities of Facebook followers and Twitter fans support CIMAM’s statement:

“The detention of artists and activists is not only inconsistent with China’s commitment to the fundamental freedoms guaranteed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in China’s own constitution, it is also inconsistent with the Chinese government’s pledge, through the Ministry of Culture, to promote all artistic disciplines and to advance artistic ideas. As organisations that represent modern and contemporary art around the world, such actions and the obscurity surrounding them are diametrically opposed to our values. They are of grave concern and consequence for the well-being of Ai Weiwei and for the artistic community at large, and hinder future collaboration with the Chinese colleagues we welcomed at our recent annual meeting in Shanghai.”

Tags: ,

Comments (4)

  • Alleged Han Han’s Article: “Goodbye! Ai Weiwei” Goes Viral – 网传韩寒被和谐的文章:再见!艾未未

    Alleged Han Han’s Article: “Goodbye! Ai Weiwei” Goes Viral – 网传韩寒被和谐的文章:再见!艾未未

    艾未未行为艺术——腾飞不忘挡中央 — 在他手中, 一个叫草泥马(操你妈)的玩具, 因此, 此图可以被读成 [草泥马(操你妈), 挡中央(党中央)]. 几年前, 一个叫草泥马(操你妈)的YouTube视频, 造成YouTube在中國被屏蔽.
    Ai Weiwei Performance Art – Taking-Off Did Not Forget to Block the Center (挡中央 (Blocking the Center), homonym 党中央 (Party Center)) — in his hand, a toy named Cao-Ni-Ma (Grass-Mud-Horse, a homonym with a most insulting Chinese cursing phrase, Fuck Your Mother, therefore, the whole images can be read as Fuck Your Mother, Party Center. Several Years ago, a YouTube segment of Cao-Ni-Ma (Grass-Mud-Horse) caused the blocking of YouTube in China.

  • Christine Wong Yap says:

    1001 Chairs for Ai Weiwei
    Sunday, April 17, 2011, 1:00pm

    Curator Steven Holmes to reenact Ai Weiwei’s project Fairytale: 1,001 Qing Dynasty Wooden Chairs—an installation which was comprised of 1,001 late Ming and Qing Dynasty wooden chairs at Documenta 12 in 2007 in Kassel, Germany—in front of Chinese embassies and consulates around the world.

    This Sunday, April 17, at 1 PM local time, supporters are invited to participate in 1001 Chairs for Ai Weiwei, by bringing a chair and gathering outside Chinese embassies and consulates to sit peacefully in support of the artist’s immediate release.

    The Chinese Consulate in San Francisco is located at 1450 Laguna Street at Geary. The event is scheduled for a Sunday, when most workers will not be in, which makes publicizing the gesture even more critical.

  • Thanks so much for bringing this to my attention ~ I’ve just signed the petition.

  • The truth always reveals itself. You can not fight truth.

Leave a comment

Please tell us what you think. We really love conversation, and we’re happy to entertain dissenting opinions. Just no name-calling, personal attacks, slurs, threats, spam, and the like, please. Those ones we reserve the right to remove.
Required

Sign Up

Join our newsletter for infrequent updates on new posts and Open Space events.
  • Required, will not be published

Dear Visitor,
We regret to inform you that Open Space is no longer active. It was retired at the end of 2021. We sincerely appreciate your support and engagement over the years.

For your reference, we encourage you to read past entries or search the site.

To stay informed about future ventures or updates, please follow us at
https:://sfmoma.org.

Thank you for being a part of our journey!