Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry

In contemporary China, free circulation of ideas, information transparency and justice impartiality still seem unattainable. But Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei has worked hard in recent years to defend these fundamental rights, putting himself on the line, and often risking his own safety.

Alison Klayman's film Ai Weiwei. Never Sorry, presented last 5 July at the Schermo dell'arte Film Festival in Florence, is the first film to document the artist's work, providing a complete overview of Weiwei's most recent activities. These are described using original footage, videos recorded by the artist during his numerous public investigations, and references to events in Weiwei's personal and artistic development.

The film portrays a humane artist, with great intellectual faith in man's ability to contribute to the improvement of society with every gesture. Weiwei expresses his optimism through his work in multiple fronts: from art, architecture, literature and documentary cinema, to social media and public protest. All of these share the single, all-encompassing goal of freeing individual expression from impositions of any kind, promoting mutual exchange and sharing between individuals. Weiwei focuses on communication and social meanings, helping to give voice to a nation muted by mass ideology and social utopianism, which act by engendering uniform thinking and eliminating the possibility for any critical approach to human existence.

Weiwei believes the virtual and the real are of equal importance, and that technology is fundamental for amplifying and disseminating his every action. The artist uses social media to establish an immediate relationship with people, while simultaneously opening his private life to the public sphere. Every single effort seeking the effective transformation of the status quo is important to the artist. The film highlights his critical stance against the Chinese government, and opens with the words of his friends and family, who have accompanied and supported Weiwei in his public battles.

Ai Weiwei stepped into the international spotlight in 2008 when, after integrating the design team for Herzog & de Meuron's Bird's Nest stadium for the Beijing Olympics, he voiced his disapproval of Chinese institutions' exploitation of the event. That same year, another bitter episode in Chinese history helped crystallize his role as a dissident artist. After the violent earthquake that devastated the Sichuan province, killing more than 70,000 people, Weiwei used his blog to recruit a group of volunteers to help him delve into the causes underlying the catastrophe. The project resulted in a list — published online — which contained the names of over 5,000 children who'd perished in the collapse of the so-called "tofu buildings." The impact the list had on public opinion triggered the immediate black-out of Weiwei's blog by the Chinese police. But he was able to circumvent censorship, using Twitter to find support for his efforts.

Weiwei also uses large international exhibitions as vehicles to circulate his ideas. The documentary narrates two episodes: Remembering, an installation created for the So Sorry exhibition at the Haus der Kunst in Munich, and Sunflower Seeds at the Turbine Hall of London's Tate Modern.

Following the destruction of his Shanghai studio by Chinese authorities on 2 April 2011, Weiwei was arrested at the Beijing airport on charges of tax evasion and pornography. He was detained in an unknown location for 81 days and subsequently released under custody, but forbidden to leave the country.

Weiwei's arrest was part of broader precautionary measures by the Chinese government to silence "inconvenient" individuals. It seems the recent protests in the Middle East, which Weiwei supports, are too close not to cause concern.

The film's final images show the artist returning home after months of arrest. This man, whose commitment to freedom of expression had once been his might, is now silent, unable to answer the journalists' questions. He takes his leave with an impotent and helpless expression on his face, like a fighter who is bent but not defeated, repeating the words, "So sorry." Silvana Fiorese