Fairytale Film
Fairytale is apparently different from my previous works, as it deals with living individuals, their lives, as well as their hope and imagination. Ai Weiwei
In 2007 Ai Weiwei created the project Fairytale for Documenta 12 in Kassel, Germany (considered to be one of the world’s most important art events.) Documenta started in 1955 and has taken place every five years since 1972. Ai Weiwei wanted to work outside of conventional art forms and create instead something with people. He arranged for 1001 Chinese citizens of different ages and backgrounds to travel to Kassel free of cost over the period of the exhibition. Two hundred people at a time spent a week in the city and could visit a unique art event while at the same time being part of it.
The project was inspired by the Brothers Grimm who were from the region of Kassel and whose collections of fairytales still are read to this day. Ai Weiwei’s Fairytale is a contemporary story that challenged the preconceptions and attitudes of the participants themselves and the people who were in Kassel in the summer of 2007.
This film documents the preparations for this unique project – the challenges confronted by Ai Weiwei and the participants, the time spent in Kassel and the artist’s insights about the project.
Through interviews we are able to follow the whole process that in itself became part of the work. The thoughts, worries and hopes of the participants, as well as their frustrations and expectations often reflect different social, political and economic factors prevalent in China today. Through the project Ai Weiwei offered these 1001 people (the number is partly a reference to the Arabic collection of tales Thousand and One Nights) something completely new and previously unimaginable for them. A fairytale became real and it will live on through their own recollections and other peoples’ stories. The project shows how art can influence and change people’s lives and attitudes through personal experiences.
Tessa Praun, Curator, January 2012 (revised)
