Ai Weiwei’s Artistry

A conversation between Ulrich Wilmes, chief curator at Haus der Kunst, Munich, and Tessa Praun, curator at Magasin 3 for the Ai Weiwei exhibition.

Ai Weiwei’s art is almost always based in cultural references, and he intentionally selects iconic objects with great cultural and symbolic value for the Chinese. In his work he combines the roles of artist, blogger and political acitvist.

As an introduction to Ai Weiwei’s artistry, Tessa Praun and Ulrich Wilmes will discuss works presented in the exhibition So Sorry at Haus der Kunst in 2009 and examine his visual expression, methodology and motivation.

Tessa Praun, born in Stockholm 1977, is curator at Magasin 3 and for the exhibition with Ai Weiwei. Tessa has worked at Magasin 3 since 2004 and has done shows with, among others, Christian Boltanski, Annika von Hausswolff, Kimsooja, Miroslav Tichy & Julia Margaret Cameron, Marijke van Warmerdam and a number of exhibitions of works from the Magasin 3 collection, such as Thrice upon a time and Investigations of a Dog. She previously worked at Kunstverein Munich.

Dr. Ulrich Wilmes, was born 1953 in Essen, Germany. Studied Art History and German Language and literature studies at the Ruhr-University in Bochum. He earned a PhD with a dissertation on Rosso Fiorentino und der Manierismus. 1985-87 he was intern at the Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte in Münster, collaborating on the exhibition Skulptur Projekte in Münster 1987. 1988-91 curator at the Portikus Frankfurt am Main. 1991-2000 curator for contemporary art at the Lenbachhaus in Munich, since 1995 deputy director. 2000-08 deputy director of the Museum Ludwig in Cologne. Since 2008 he his chief curator at Haus der Kunst in Munich. Ulrich Wilmes has worked with numerous exhibitions and publications on international contemporary art, e.g. Dan Graham, Jörg Immendorff, On Kawara, Ellsworth Kelly, Per Kirkeby, Matt Mullican, Gerhard Richter, Ulrich Rückriem, Ed Ruscha, Lawrence Weiner.