Katalin Varga (Hungarian: Varga Katalin [ˈvɒrɡɒ ˈkɒtɒlin]; August 22, 1802 - aft. 1852) was the leader of the Transylvanian Miners' Movement in the 1840s.

Life[link]

Family and early life[link]

Katalin was born into a family of impoverished nobility on August 22, 1802, in Hălmeag, Transylvania. Her father János Varga and her mother Katalin Rosondai were minor landowners, and they worked their land themselves. The only reference to their state of nobility can be found in one petition dating from 1846. From the age of 10, Katalin was raised by her aunt, along with her younger sister Ilonka and her brother. Other than her native language, Hungarian, she also spoke Romanian and German. Confessionwise, she was a Lutheran. At the age of 20, she married György Kelemen, a wealthy wheeler, whose two children she raised. She also joined him in his business, hemp trading. In the early days, the business made profit; but later they gave credit to customers who did not pay it back. In the meantime, Katalin and György divorced, and he died shortly after.

Ropemaker's case[link]

A certain rope-maker of Braşov owed her the sum of 631 forints. She brought a suit against him to Braşov's borough council, which brought no results, so she also traveled to Vienna to ask for help at the royal court there. On August 1, 1839, the Royal Chancery declared that they could not reach a decision, and sent the case back to Braşov. Here the case lingered without resolution, so in April 1840 she returned to Vienna, where the court demanded that the Brasov borough council settle the matter. Again and again no resolution could be reached, and finally the case was dismissed and sent to archive by the district judge. Katalin Varga put her property losses behind her and attempted to start her life anew. In 1840, during the course of her travels to and from Vienna, she had met with mineworkers from the villages of Abrud-Sat, Bucium, and Cǎrpiniş. These villages were part of the Zlatna Treasury Estate (Hung: zalatnai kincstári uradalom); at the time they were involved in a dispute with their landlord involving his unwillingness to pay them their part of the gold mines' income. The inhabitants of the three villages entrusted Katalin with their case, and from this moment their interests became her own.

Three villages' case[link]

After Katalin moved to Bucium, she prepared a petition which she herself signed and brought to Vienna. It outlined the complaints of the three villages: harassment by the officers; an increase in forced labor; and a general breaking of the villagers' privileges. In January 1841 the petition came before the ruler; in 1842 the comitatus did send a fact-finding commission, but regarding a separate matter: the illegal use of the forest by the villagers. The representative, Deputy-Lieutenant Menyhért Fosztó, ruled against the villagers. In his report, he concluded that "the reason for the villagers' restlessness [was that they were being] incited by certain well-paid writers and officials, who profit from this trouble-making." In response to this, Katalin Varga advised the villagers to continue using as much wood as they wanted for their homes and furnaces, and to chase away the forest rangers. Presumably they did, and predictably in March 1843 the Royal Chancery reopened the case.

While the case was continuing, on May 6, 1843 a group of villagers of Detunata, led by Katalin, armed themselves with staffs and axes and marched against the government officials who had begun planting trees on the villagers' lands. In the end no one was harmed, but the villagers destroyed the saplings. This time around Deputy-Lieutenant Fosztó decided in favor of both the 1841 petition and on the side of the Detunata villagers. The Treasury however was discontented with this, and labeled Katalin Varga a "dangerous rebel" and a "deceiver". This marks the beginning of several unsuccessful attempts on the part of the comitatus to capture Katalin.

This section requires expansion.

Active resistance[link]

Beginning with the 18th century, there had been an ongoing effort to convert the local Romanian populace from Orthodox to Greek Catholic. Under the guise of this effort, Vienna tried to pacify the peasants by giving 1000 forints for the construction of a new Greek Catholic parish in Bucium. On April 25, 1845, when work should have already begun, the locals rose up against it in the belief that the building was a government office. Dumitru Nicoară and others tried to prevent with pitchforks the construction, claiming that the land belonged to the peasants. Vienna assumed that the instigator of the problems was Katalin Varga. She was no longer allowed to travel to Vienna and many of her newer petitions were rejected outright.

On March 9, 1845, Katalin gave a speech in front of the Abrud-Sat church in which she spoke out against the government officials who continued cutting wood from the villages' forests. She also enlisted the help of local lawyer Sámuel Szakács Mikes to deal with new government restrictions on alcoholic drinks. Because of her rapidly growing influence, pressure was put on Deputy-Lieutenant Fosztó, who began speaking with and trying to advise the villagers personally, with only minor successes. In Bucium, Katalin Varga and 50 followers armed with staffs went to the courtyard of judge Ion Pleşa Danciu; their demands of an explanation about their tax moneys resulted in a minor scuffle. Reports about these events named Katalin Varga guilty of inciting them all, and the Treasury continued to press for her capture.

On August 10, 1846, at the news of a peasant uprising in Galicia, Chancellor Baron Sámuel Jósika and Governor-general Count József Teleky requested military aid from General Anton Freiherr von Puchner. In light to this situation, Katalin Varga personally took a petition to Vienna in which she admitted to the faults in some of her and the villages' actions, asked pardon for their mistakes, and thanked the court for their continued patience in the matter, but also restated the problems of the villages, which had still not been solved. The petition also contained a separate letter from the three villages, in which they took on responsibility for Katalin Varga's actions and thereby legitimized her safe-passage to Vienna. They further requested an independent examination of the issues at the expense of the villages, and that all military intervention should cease until after the examination had concluded. Chancellor Jósika, who feared outright rebellion in the country, suspended military actions and asked for the assistance of Andrei Şaguna, who had been named vicar on June 27, 1846.

Politics of Andrei Saguna and Katalin Varga's capture[link]

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Imprisonment and subsequent years[link]

The authorities were not pleased with these claims, and took action to imprison Katalin Varga as the instigator. With the assistance of resident bishop Şaguna, she was arrested on trumped-up charges in January 1847. First she was held in the prison at Aiud, and then at Alba Iulia, where she was held for nearly four years without judgment.

The trial finally took place in 1851, with a sentence of three months given. After serving her time, Katalin was exiled to the village of her birth, Hălmeag. It is assumed that she lived out the remainder of her life there, and died sometime after 1852.

Posthumous recognitions[link]

In 1977, the villagers in Hălmeag erected a monument to Katalin Varga in the courtyard of the local church. During the communist era, the Hălmeag collective farm was named after her. In 1951, the Secondary School for Girls in Szolnok, Hungary, adopted the name "Varga Katalin Secondary School", which it retains to this day. Also, in Romania, several streets are named Ecaterina Varga, the Romanian form of her name.

Sources[link]

• I. Tóth Zoltán (1951) (in Hungarian). Varga Katalin. Budapest: Művelt Nép Könyvkiadó. 943. T80. 
• Kiss András, ed. (1980) [1979] (in Hungarian). Varga Katalin pere. Bucharest: Kriterion Könyvkiadó. ISBN 963-07-2076-0. 
• Kenyeres Ágnes, ed. "Varga Katalin" (in Hungarian). Magyar Életrajzi Lexikon. http://www.mek.iif.hu/porta/szint/egyeb/lexikon/eletrajz/html/ABC16241/16442.htm. Retrieved 2009-04-22. 
• Cseh Andrásné, ed. (1959). "Varga Katalin" (in Hungarian). A szolnoki Varga Katalin Általános Leánygimnázium évkönyve az 1958/59. tanévről. Szolnok: Headmaster of the school. pp. 3–4. 

Mary Elle Fanning (born April 9, 1998), credited as Elle Fanning, is an American actress and model. She is the younger sister of actress Dakota Fanning and mainly known for her starring roles in Phoebe in Wonderland, Somewhere, and We Bought a Zoo. In 2011, Fanning starred in her breakout role as Alice Dainard in J.J. Abrams' sci-fi-drama blockbuster, Super 8. For this role she received overwhelming critical acclaim and was often cited as one of the film's best aspects. She received nominations for a Saturn Award, a Young Artist Award, a Broadcast Film Critics Association Award, a Teen Choice Award, a Scream Award, an MTV Movie Award, and more including a special Spotlight Award at the Hollywood Film Festival.

Personal life[link]

Fanning was born in Conyers, Georgia, the daughter of Heather Joy (née Arrington), who played tennis professionally, and Steven J. Fanning, who played minor league baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals and now works as an electronics salesman in Los Angeles.^[1] Her maternal grandfather is American football player Rick Arrington, and her aunt is ESPN reporter Jill Arrington.^[2] Fanning is the younger sister of Dakota Fanning, who is also an actress.^[3] Fanning has German, Irish, English, and French ancestry (her paternal grandmother was born in Ludwigshafen, Germany).^[4][1] Fanning and her family are members of the Southern Baptist Convention.^[5] She has been quoted as saying "We're just normal sisters. We both go to school and we just play together."^[6] Fanning currently attends Campbell Hall School in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, that was also attended by child actresses Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen.^[7]

Career[link]

Fanning started acting at the age of 2 years and 8 months. She began her acting career by playing the younger version of her older sister Dakota's characters in both the mini-series Taken and the movie I Am Sam. In 2002, at the age of four, Fanning, in the comedy Daddy Day Care, won her first role independent of her sister. Anecdotal evidence of her emerging skill was seen in the decision to cast her in the role of Ruth in The Door in the Floor (2002) opposite Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger. The film's producers had originally planned to hire identical twins for the intense shooting schedule, but were so impressed with Fanning that they used only her.^[8]

Late in 2003, Fanning appeared in Because of Winn-Dixie in the small role of Sweetie Pie Thomas. In 2004, she did voicework in the English dubbed version of Miyazaki's animated film My Neighbor Totoro, in the role of Mei. Later that same year, she filmed I Want Someone To Eat Cheese With. In early 2005, Fanning filmed scenes in Charlotte's Web as the "future granddaughter" of Fern Arable played by Dakota Fanning. However, the scenes didn't make the final cut. In mid 2005, she played Debbie, the daughter of Richard and Susan Jones (played by Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett) in the Academy Award-winning film Babel. In early 2006, Fanning filmed scenes in both The Nines and Déjà Vu. In mid 2006, she filmed The Lost Room a sci-fi TV mini-series. Also in 2006, she appeared on the episode "Need to Know" of House: MD, playing the patient's daughter.

By the end of 2006, Fanning began to book lead roles. The first of these was the one of Emma Learner in Reservation Road—the grieving daughter of Grace and Ethan Learner. The film deals with the aftermath of a tragic car accident in which Emma's brother is killed. Late in 2008, Fanning had a small part in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button as a younger version of Cate Blanchett's character. Mid-year 2007, Fanning filmed the title role Phoebe of Phoebe in Wonderland—the fantastical tale of a little girl who won't—or can't—follow the rules. Phoebe in Wonderland also starred Felicity Huffman and was released in March 2009.

From July through October 2007, Fanning appeared in The Nutcracker in 3D, playing Mary. Set in 1920s Vienna, this is a tale of a little girl whose godfather gives her a special doll on Christmas Eve. The movie was filmed in Budapest, Hungary and was released late 2010.

In March 2008, Fanning and her sister Dakota were scheduled to star in My Sister's Keeper, but the opportunity fell through when Dakota learned she would have to shave her head. The sisters were immediately replaced by Abigail Breslin and Sofia Vassilieva.^[9]

Variety reported in April 2009 that Fanning would be starring in Academy Award-winning screenwriter Sofia Coppola's new film, Somewhere. The plot centers around a "bad-boy" actor who is forced to re-evaluate his life when his daughter, played by Fanning, arrives unexpectedly.^[10] The film was released during the 2010 awards season. At its first film festival, the 67th Venice Film Festival, it took out the Golden Lion.^[11]

In late 2010, Fanning began working on Francis Ford Coppola's new film Twixt, that Coppola wrote, based on a dream he had.^[12] She plays the role of a young ghost named V.

In 2011, Fanning starred in in J. J. Abrams' sci-fi-drama film Super 8 as Alice Dainard. The movie was released on June 10, 2011 and centers around a group of kids who are forced to deal with strange happenings in their small town.^[13] For this role, Fanning was introduced to a much more mainstream audience, leading to this becoming her breakout role. She received overwhelming critical acclaim and was reported by several critics and fans as a frontrunner to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

In December 2011, Fanning appeared in Cameron Crowe's We Bought a Zoo.^[14] She played Lily, a thirteen-year-old who is working illegally at the zoo's restaurant, and lives on the property with her only parental figure, Kelly (Scarlett Johansson).

Filmography[link]

Notable TV guest appearances[link]

Awards[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Elle Fanning at the Internet Movie Database

Alessandro Antine Nivola (born June 28, 1972) is an American actor, perhaps best known for his roles in the films Coco Before Chanel, Best Laid Plans, Jurassic Park III, Face/Off, and the first two films of the Goal! trilogy.

Personal life[link]

Nivola was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His mother, Virginia (née Davis), is an artist, and his father, Pietro Salvatore Nivola, is a professor of political science who wrote the book Laws of the Landscape: How Policies Shape Cities in Europe and America.^[1][2][3][4] Nivola's paternal grandfather was the Italian sculptor Costantino Nivola, and his paternal grandmother, Ruth Guggenheim,^[5] was a Jewish refugee from Germany.^[6] Nivola has described his mother as "a WASP, from the South",^[7][8] a descendant of Jefferson Davis.^[9] He has a brother, Adrian, and attended Phillips Exeter Academy.

Nivola married British actress Emily Mortimer in the Chilterns, Buckinghamshire in January 2003; the couple have a son, Samuel John, born in Westminster, London,^[10] on September 23, 2003. They also have a daughter, May, born on January 15, 2010. They used to live in Los Angeles California in Echo Park. They are currently living in Boerum Hill in Brooklyn, New York. He had fellow actor Heath Ledger as a neighbor.

Career[link]

Nivola began his acting career while still an undergraduate at Yale, landing the leading role in a Seattle production of Athol Fugard's Master Harold...and the Boys. After college, Nivola debuted on Broadway in 1995 as the young lover of Helen Mirren in A Month in the Country. The next year he appeared in the 1996 NBC miniseries Danielle Steel's The Ring and landed his first film role as Joanna Going's preppy husband in Inventing the Abbotts before being cast as Nicolas Cage's paranoid sociopath brother in John Woo's Face/Off (both in 1997).

Nivola adopted an English accent to play a mystery man from former girlfriend Rachel Weisz's past in I Want You (1998), directed by Michael Winterbottom. He then appeared in the thriller Best Laid Plans and again as an Englishman in Patricia Rozema's screen version of the Jane Austen novel, Mansfield Park, both in 1999. He played a rock singer involved with his record producer, played by Frances McDormand, in the film Laurel Canyon. Nivola was one of the faces for the GAP's 2002 Ads campaign "For Every Generation".

Nivola trained hard for the filming of the Goal! trilogy, and has picked up a lot of skill and pace and was commended for his sudden burst of talent by the directors of Goal! 2.^[11] In the film Coco avant Chanel, Nivola again played an Englishman and learned to speak French for the role.^[12]

In 2010, Nivola appeared in the Off-Broadway play A Lie of the Mind, directed by Ethan Hawke at the Theatre Row in New York City.^[13]

Filmography[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

Blockbuster Entertainment Awards

• 1998: Nominated, "Favorite Supporting Actor in an Action/Adventure Film" – Face/Off

Independent Spirit Awards

• 2004: Nominated, "Best Supporting Male" – Laurel Canyon

References[link]

External links[link]

• Alessandro Nivola at the Internet Movie Database

Ai Weiwei Ai Weiwei Born (1957-08-28) 28 August 1957 (age 54) Beijing, China Spouse Lu Qing Nationality Chinese Works Sunflower Seeds Ai Weiwei Chinese 艾未未 Transcriptions Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin Ài Wèiwèi - Wade–Giles Ai4 Wei4wei4 - IPA [âɪwêɪwêɪ] Cantonese (Yue) - Yale Romanization ngaai6 mei6 mei6

Ai Weiwei (born 18 May 1957) is a Chinese contemporary artist, active in sculpture, installation, architecture, curating, photography, film, and social, political and cultural criticism.^[1][2] Ai collaborated with Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron as the artistic consultant on the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008 Olympics.^[3] As a political activist, he has been highly and openly critical of the Chinese Government's stance on democracy and human rights. He has investigated government corruption and cover-ups, in particular the Sichuan schools corruption scandal following the collapse of so-called "tofu-skin schools" in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.^[4] In 2011, following his arrest at Beijing airport on 3 April, he was held for over two months without any official charges being filed; officials alluded to their allegations of "economic crimes" (tax evasion). In October 2011 ArtReview magazine named Ai number one in their annual Power 100 list. The decision was criticised by the Chinese authorities. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin responded, "China has many artists who have sufficient ability. We feel that a selection that is based purely on a political bias and perspective has violated the objectives of the magazine".^[5]

Life and work[link]

Ai Weiwei's father was Chinese poet Ai Qing,^[6] who was denounced during the Anti-Rightist Movement and in 1958 sent to a labour camp in Xinjiang with his wife, Gao Ying.^[7] Ai Weiwei was one year old at the time and lived in Shihezi for 16 years. In 1975 the family returned to Beijing.^[8] Ai Weiwei is married to artist Lu Qing.^[7]

In 1978, Ai enrolled in the Beijing Film Academy and attended school with Chinese directors Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou.^[9] In 1978, he was one of the founders of the early avant garde art group the "Stars", together with Ma Desheng, Wang Keping, Huang Rui, Li Shuang, Zhong Acheng and Qu Leilei. The group disbanded in 1983,^[10] yet Ai participated in regular Stars group shows, The Stars: Ten Years, 1989 (Hanart Gallery, Hong-Hong and Taipei), and a retrospective exhibition in Beijing in 2007:Origin Point (Today Art Museum, Beijing).

From 1981 to 1993, he lived in the United States, mostly in New York, creating conceptual art by altering readymade objects.^[10] He studied at Parsons School of Design^[11] and at the Art Students League of New York.^[12] At the same time, Ai became fascinated by blackjack card games and frequented Atlantic City casinos. He is still regarded in gambling circles as a top tier professional blackjack player according to an article published on blackjackchamp.com.^[13][14][15]

In 1993, Ai returned to China after his father became ill.^[16] He helped establish the experimental artists' Beijing East Village and published a series of three books about this new generation of artists: Black Cover Book (1994), White Cover Book (1995), and Gray Cover Book (1997).^[17]

Ai Weiwei's contribution to the Documenta 12 in Kassel 2007

Ai Weiwei is its Artistic Director of China Art Archives & Warehouse (CAAW), which he co-founded in 1997. This contemporary art archive and experimental gallery in Beijing concentrated on experimental art from the People's Republic of China, initiates and facilitates exhibitions and other forms of introductions inside and outside China.^[18] The building which houses it was designed by Ai in 2000.^[19]

In 1998, Ai moved to Caochangdi, in the northeast of Beijing, and built a studio house – his first architectural project. Due to his interest in architecture, he founded the architecture studio FAKE Design, in 2003.^[20] In 2000, he co-curated the art exhibition Fuck Off with curator Feng Boyi in Shanghai, China.^[21]

In 2006, Ai and HHF Architects designed a private residence in upstate New York for collectors Christopher Tsai and André Stockamp.^[22] According to the New York Times, the Tsai Residence is divided into four modules and the details are "extraordinarily refined".^[22][23] In 2009, the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design selected the home for its International Architecture Awards, one of the world's most prestigious global awards for new architecture, landscape architecture, interiors and urban planning.^[24] In 2010, Wallpaper magazine nominated the Tsai Residence for its Wallpaper Design Awards category: Best New Private House.^[25] A detached guesthouse to the Tsai Residence, also designed by Ai and HHF Architects, was completed after the main house and, according to New York Magazine, looks like a "floating boomerang of rusty Cor-Ten steel."^[26]

Ai Weiwei's Fountain of Light (2007) is a 7m high tower of steel and crystals, reinterpreting Vladimir Tatlin's Monument to the Third International.^[27]

On 15 March 2010, Ai took part in Digital Activism in China, a discussion hosted by The Paley Media Center in New York with Jack Dorsey (founder of Twitter) and Richard MacManus.^[28]

Exhibitions and installations[link]

Ai's artwork has been exhibited in Australia, Europe, North and South America. Solo exhibitions include Stiftung DKM, Duisburg (2010); Museum of Contemporary Craft, Portland (2010); Arcadia University Gallery, Glenside (2010); Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2009); Haus der Kunst, Munich (2009); Three Shadows Photography Art Center, Beijing (2009); Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, Cambelltown Arts Center, Sydney (2008); Groninger Museum, Groningen (2008).^[29]

Ai’s work was included in the 48th Venice Biennale in Italy (1999), 1st Guangzhou Triennale in China (2002), 1st Montpellier Biennial of Chinese Contemporary Art in France (2005), The 2nd Guangzhou Triennial (2005), Busan Biennial in Korea (2006), The 5th Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art in Australia (2006), Documenta 12 in Germany (2007), Liverpool Biennial International 08 in the United Kingdom (2008), 2010 Venice Architecture Biennale and the 29th Sao Paulo Biennial in Brazil (2010).

Sunflower Seeds, 2010

Fairytale is the title of Ai's contribution for Documenta 12 in 2007. For this project Ai brought 1001 people from all over China to the city of Kassel in Germany. They were chosen through an open invitation he posted on his blog.^[30] Ai even designed clothes, luggage and a temporary home in an old textile factory. He let them wander around the city during the exhibition time of three months. The participants were divided into five groups that each stayed in Kassel for eight days. According to Philip Tinari the primary design object here is not the clothing or suitcases but the participants' experiences, even their spirits.^[20] During the exhibition his monumental outdoor sculpture titled Template, made of wooden doors and windows from destroyed Ming and Qing Dynasty houses (1368–1911), collapsed after a storm.^[31] In 2008 he curated the architecture project Ordos 100 in Ordos City, Inner Mongolia. He invited 100 architects from all over the world (29 countries) to participate in this project.^[32]

Ai curated the exhibition The State of Things, together with Belgian artist Luc Tuymans. It was shown at the Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels from 18 October 2009 to 10 January 2010 and at the National Art Museum in Beijing from 1–30 May 2010.^[33] From October 2009 to January 2010 Ai exhibited So Sorry at Haus der Kunst in Munich, Germany. This solo exhibition showed Ai’s largest retrospective to date.^[34] The title refers to the thousands of apologies expressed recently by governments, industries, and financial corporations worldwide in an effort to make up for tragedies and wrongdoings – though often withhout shouldering the consequences or the desire to acknowledge let alone repair. Saying sorry – or not saying it – is in the headlines everywhere and thus also in China.^[35] For this show Ai created the installation Remembering on Haus der Kunst's façade. It was made out of 9000 children's backpacks. They spell out the sentence 'She lived happily for seven years in this world' in Chinese characters. This is a quote from a mother whose child died in the Sichuan earthquake in 2008. Ai said: "The idea to use backpacks came from my visit to Sichuan after the earthquake in May 2008. During the earthquake many schools collapsed. Thousands of young students lost their lives, and you could see bags and study material everywhere. Then you realize individual life, media, and the lives of the students are serving very different purposes. The lives of the students disappeared within the state propaganda, and very soon everybody will forget everything."^[36]

Template (2007) after collapse

On 25 July 2009, Ai opened his solo show According to What? at Tokyo's Mori Art Museum, Japan. This exhibition presented 26 works, most made over the past decade.^[37]

In December 2009, Ai had a small exhibition at the Comme des Garcons store in Hong Kong.^[38]

In February 2010, Ai Weiwei: Dropping the Urn, the first exhibition by Ai to travel outside New York City in the United States, opened at Arcadia University Art Gallery. The exhibition traveled to the Museum of Contemporary Craft in 2010, and the Knoxville Museum of Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, in 2011.^[39] Included in the exhibition were iconic works by Ai including a Chinese figure in a Johnnie Walker liquor bottle (Untitled, 1993) and a Coca-Cola vase (Coca-Cola vase, 1997) from the collection of Christopher Tsai and André Stockamp.^[40][41]

From March to September 2010, Ai exhibited Barely Something, an exhibition curated by Roger M. Buergel, the director of Documenta12, at the Museum DKM in Duisburg, Germany.^{[citation needed]} Galerie Urs Meile of Lucerne, Switzerland, and Beijing showed Ai in this period, among other European and Asian locations.^[42]

In October 2010, Sunflower Seeds was installed at the Tate Modern Turbine Hall, London. The work consists of one hundred million porcelain "seeds," each individually hand-painted in the town of Jingdezhen by 1,600 Chinese artisans, and scattered over a large area of the exhibition hall.^[43] The artist was keen for visitors to walk across and roll in the work to experience and contemplate the essence of his comment on mass consumption, Chinese industry, famine and collective work. However, on 16 October, Tate Modern stopped people from walking on the exhibit due to health liability concerns over the porcelain dust.^[44] In February 2011, a 220-pound (100 kg) pile from Sunflower Seeds sold for $559,394 (well above its high estimate of $195,000) at Sotheby's in London.^[45]

Despite the artist's absence, Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads opened on 4 May 2011, at the Pulitzer Fountain outside the Plaza Hotel in New York City.^[46] The heads were also on display at Somerset House in London from 12 May – 26 June 2011.^[47] The heads copy 18th century heads in the gardens of the Old Summer Palace, or Yuanmingyuan, near Beijing. They were ransacked by British and French troops during the Second Opium War of 1860, some of them resurfacing in 2000. A Guggenheim curator read Ai's words, "Without freedom of speech there is no modern world, just a barbaric one."^[46]

Ai's work is included in numerous public collections, among others the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego.^[48] On 20 April 2011, Ai was appointed Visiting Professor of the Berlin University of the Arts.^[49]

For the first time outside of China, his photographs of his time in New York City from 1983 to 1993 were featured in a 2011 exhibition presented by Asia Society. The earliest photographs were from 1983, while he was living in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. In 1985, he moved to Manhattan’s Lower East Side, where he lived in two different apartments until he returned to China in 1993 to be with his ailing father. The exhibition included images of the poets Allen Ginsberg, Gu Cheng, and Bei Dao.^[50] The exhibition, showcasing 227 photos, opened on 29 June and lasted until 14 August 2011;^[51] The show moved from NY to Martin Gropius Bau in Berlin.^[52] Another exhibition in 2011-12, Ai Weiwei: Dropping the Urn at the Victoria and Albert Museum, featured a selection of ceramic works including Coca Cola Vase and a pile of sunflower seeds. In his ceramic works Ai engages with issues such as the loss of historic material culture due to rapid modernization as well as broader themes including perceptions of value, mass production, globalization and the concepts of 'real' and 'fake'. ^[40]

In summer 2012, Ai teamed again with Herzog & de Meuron on a "would-be archaeological site [as] a game of make-believe and fleeting memory" as the year's temporary Serpentine pavilion in London's Kensington Garden.^[53]

Awards and Nominations[link]

In March 2010, Ai received an Honorary Doctorate Degree from the Faculty of Politics and Social Science, University of Ghent, Belgium.^[54]

In September 2010 he received Das Glas der Vernunft (The Prism of Reason), Kassel Citizen Award, Kassel, Germany.^[55]

Ai was ranked 13th in ArtReview's guide to the 100 most powerful figures in contemporary art: Power 100, 2010.^[56] Ai is now on top of ArtReview's guide to the 100 most powerful figures in contemporary art: Power 100, 2011.^[57]

In December 2011, he was one of four runners-up in Time's Person of the Year award.^[58]

Along with Saudi Arabian women's rights activist Manal al-Sharif and Burmese dissident Aung San Suu Kyi, Ai received the inaugural Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent of the Human Rights Foundation on 2 May 2012.^[59]

Beijing National Stadium[link]

The Beijing National Stadium at night during the 2008 Summer Olympics

Ai was commissioned as the artistic consultant for design, collaborating with the Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron, for the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008 Summer Olympics, also known as the "Bird's Nest."^[60] Although ignored by the Chinese media, he had voiced his anti-Olympics views.^[2] He later distanced himself from the project, saying, "I've already forgotten about it. I turn down all the demands to have photographs with it," saying it is part of a "pretend smile" of bad taste.^[61][62] In August 2007 he also accused those choreographing the Olympic opening ceremony, including Steven Spielberg and Zhang Yimou, of failing to live up to their responsibility as artists. Ai said "It's disgusting. I don't like anyone who shamelessly abuses their profession, who makes no moral judgment."^[63] In February 2008, Spielberg withdrew from his role as advisor to the 2008 Summer Olympics.^[64][65] When asked why he participated in the designing of the Bird's Nest in the first place, Ai replied "I did it because I love design."^[66]

Sichuan earthquake student casualties investigation[link]

On 15 December 2008, Ai supported an investigation, started by another Chinese artist, into student casualties in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake . The investigation aimed to compile a list of students killed in the earthquake by 12 May 2009, the earthquake's first anniversary.^[67] As of 14 April 2009, the list had accumulated 5,385 names.^[68] Ai published the collected names as well as numerous articles documenting the investigation on his blog which was shut down by Chinese authorities in May 2009.^[69] He also posted his list of names of schoolchildren who died on the wall of his office at FAKE Design in Beijing.^[70]

Ai suffered headaches and claimed he had difficulty concentrating on his work since returning from Chengdu in August 2009, where he was beaten by the police for trying to testify for Tan Zuoren, a fellow investigator of the shoddy construction and student casualties in the earthquake.

On 14 September 2009, Ai was diagnosed to be suffering internal bleeding in a hospital in Munich, Germany, and the doctor arranged for emergency brain surgery.^[71] The cerebral hemorrhage is believed to be linked to the police attack.^[72][73]

According to the Financial Times, in an attempt to force Ai to leave the country, two accounts used by him had been hacked in a sophisticated attack on Google in China dubbed Operation Aurora, their contents read and copied; his bank accounts were investigated by state security agents who claimed he was under investigation for "unspecified suspected crimes".^[74]

Shanghai studio controversy[link]

In November 2010, Ai was placed under house arrest by the Chinese police. He said this was to prevent the planned party marking the demolition of his newly built Shanghai studio.^[75]

The building was designed and built by Ai upon encouragement and persuasion from a "high official [from Shanghai]" as part of a new cultural area designated by Shanghai Municipal authorities; Ai would have used it as a studio and to teach architecture courses. But now Ai has been accused of erecting the structure without the necessary planning permission and a demolition notice has been ordered, even though, Ai said, officials had been extremely enthusiastic, and the entire application and planning process was "under government supervision". According to Ai, a number of artists were invited to build new studios in this area of Shanghai because officials wanted to create a cultural area.^[76]

On 3 November 2010 Ai said the government had informed him two months earlier that the newly completed studio would be knocked down because it was illegal. Ai complained that this was unfair, as he was "the only one singled out to have my studio destroyed." The Guardian reported Ai saying Shanghai municipal authorities were 'frustrated' by documentaries on subjects they considered sensitive:^[76] two of the better known ones featured Shanghai resident Feng Zhenghu, who lived in forced exile for three months in Narita Airport, Tokyo; another well known documentary focused on Yang Jia, who murdered six Shanghai police officers.^[77]

In the end, the party took place without Weiwei's presence; his supporters feasted on river crab, an allusion to "harmony", and a euphemism used to jeer official censorship. Ai was released from house arrest the next day.^[78]

Like other activists and intellectuals, Ai was prevented from leaving China in late 2010. Ai suggested that the authorities wanted to prevent him from attending the ceremony in December 2010 to award the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize to fellow dissident Liu Xiaobo.^[79] Ai said that he had not been invited to the ceremony, and was attempting to travel to South Korea for a meeting when he was told that he could not leave for reasons of national security.^[80]

In the evening of 11 January 2011, Ai's studio was demolished in a surprise move by the local government.^[81][82]

2011 arrest[link]

South China Morning Post reports that Ai received at least two visits from the police, the last being on 31 March – three days before his detention – apparently with offers of membership to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. A staff member recalled that Ai had mentioned receiving the offer earlier, "[but Ai] didn't say if it was a membership of the CPPCC at the municipal or national level, how he responded or whether he accepted it or not."^[83]

On 24 February, amid an online campaign for Middle East-style protests in major Chinese cities by overseas dissidents, Ai posted on his Twitter account: "I didn’t care about jasmine at first, but people who are scared by jasmine sent out information about how harmful jasmine is often, which makes me realize that jasmine is what scares them the most. What a jasmine!"^[84][85]

On 3 April, Ai was arrested at Beijing Airport just before catching a flight to Hong Kong and his studio facilities were searched.^[87] A police contingent of approximately 50 officers came to his studio, threw a cordon around it and searched the premises. They took away laptops and the hard drive from the main computer; along with Ai, police also detained eight staff members and Ai's wife, Lu Qing. Police also visited the mother of Ai's two year-old son.^[88] While state media originally reported on 6 April that Ai was arrested at the airport because "his departure procedures were incomplete,"^[89] the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on 7 April that Ai was arrested under investigation for alleged economic crimes.^[90] Then, on 8 April, police returned to Ai's workshop to examine his financial affairs.^[91] On 9 April, Ai's accountant, as well as studio partner Liu Zhenggang and driver Zhang Jingsong, disappeared,^[92] while Ai's assistant Wen Tao has remained missing since Ai's arrest on 3 April.^[93] Ai's wife said that she was summoned by the Beijing Chaoyang district tax bureau, where she was interrogated about his studio's tax on 12 April.^[83]

Response to Ai's arrest[link]

Analysts and other activists said Ai had been widely thought to be untouchable, but Nicholas Bequelin from Human Rights Watch suggested that his arrest, calculated to send the message that no one would be immune, must have had the approval of someone in the top leadership.^[94] International governments, human rights groups and art institutions, among others, have called for Ai's release, while Chinese officials have yet to notify Ai's family of his whereabouts.^[95]

State media started describing Wei as a 'deviant and a plagiarist' in early 2011.^[96] The China Daily subsidiary, the Global Times editorial on 6 April 2011 attacked Wei, saying "Ai Weiwei likes to do something 'others dare not do.' He has been close to the red line of Chinese law. Objectively speaking, Chinese society does not have much experience in dealing with such persons. However, as long as Ai Weiwei continuously marches forward, he will inevitably touch the red line one day."^[97] Two days later, the journal scorned Western media for questioning Ai's charge as a "catch-all crime", and denounced the use of his political activism as a "legal shield" against everyday crimes. It said "Ai's detention is one of the many judicial cases handled in China every day. It is pure fantasy to conclude that Ai's case will be handled specially and unfairly."^[98] Frank Ching expressed in the South China Morning Post that how the Global Times could radically shift its position from one day to the next was reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland.^[99]

Tate Modern in London, home to Ai's 'Sunflower Seeds' exhibition, put a large sign on their exterior that reads "Release Ai Weiwei"

Michael Sheridan of The Times suggested that Ai had offered himself to the authorities on a platter with some of his provocative art, particularly photographs of himself nude with only a toy alpaca hiding his modesty – with a caption『草泥马挡中央』 ("grass mud horse covering the middle"). The term possesses a double meaning in Chinese: one possible interpretation was given by Sheridan as: "Fuck your mother, the party central committee".^[86]

Ming Pao in Hong Kong reacted strongly to the state media's character attack on Ai, saying that authorities had employed “a chain of actions outside the law, doing further damage to an already weak system of laws, and to the overall image of the country.”^[96] Pro-Beijing newspaper in Hong Kong, Wen Wei Po, announced that Ai was under arrest for tax evasion, bigamy and spreading indecent images on the internet, and vilified him with multiple instances of strong rhetoric.^[100][101] Supporters said "the article should be seen as a mainland media commentary attacking Ai, rather than as an accurate account of the investigation."^[102]

The United States and European Union protested Ai's detention.^[103] The international arts community also mobilised petitions calling for the release of Ai: "1001 Chairs for Ai Weiwei" was organized by Creative Time of New York that calls for artists to bring chairs to Chinese embassies and consulates around the world on 17 April 2011, at 1 pm local time "to sit peacefully in support of the artist's immediate release."^[104][105] Artists in Hong Kong,^[106] Germany^[106] and Taiwan demonstrated and called for Ai to be released.^[107]

One of the major protests by U.S. museums took place on 19 and 20 May when the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego organized a 24-hour silent protest in which volunteer participants, including community members, media, and museum staff, occupied two traditionally styled Chinese chairs for one-hour periods.^[108] The 24-hour sit-in referenced Ai’s sculpture series, Marble Chair, two of which were on view and were subsequently acquired for the Museum’s permanent collection.

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and the International Council of Museums, which organised petitions, said they had collected more than 90,000 signatures calling for the release of Ai.^[109] On 13 April 2011, a group of European intellectuals led by Václav Havel had issued an open letter to Wen Jiabao, condemning the arrest and demanding the immediate release of Ai. The signatories include Ivan Klíma, Jiří Gruša, Jáchym Topol, Elfriede Jelinek, Adam Michnik, Adam Zagajewski, Helmuth Frauendorfer; Bei Ling (Chinese:贝岭), a Chinese poet in exile drafted and also signed the open letter.^[110]

On 16 May 2011, the Chinese authorities allowed his wife to visit him briefly. Liu Xiaoyuan, his attorney and personal friend, reported that Wei was in good physical condition and receiving treatment for his chronic diabetes and hypertension; he was not in a prison or hospital but under some form of house arrest.^[111]

He is the subject of the 2012 documentary film Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, directed by American filmmaker Alison Klayman, which received a special jury prize at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and will open the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, North America’s largest documentary festival, in Toronto on April 26, 2012.^[112]

Release[link]

On 22 June 2011, the Chinese authorities released Ai on bail after close to three months' detention on charges of tax evasion.^[113] Beijing Fake Cultural Development Ltd., a company Ai controlled, had allegedly evaded taxes and intentionally destroyed accounting documents. State media also reports that Ai was granted bail takes on account of Ai's "good attitude in confessing his crimes", willingness to pay back taxes, and his chronic illnesses.^[114] According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, he is prohibited from leaving Beijing without permission for one year.^[115][116]

Ai's supporters widely viewed his detention as retaliation for his vocal criticism of the government.^[117] On 23 June 2011, professor Wang Yujin of China University of Political Science and Law stated that the release of Ai on bail shows that the Chinese government could not find any solid evidence of Ai's alleged "economic crime".^[118]

On 24 June 2011, Ai told a Radio Free Asia reporter that he was thankful for the support of the Hong Kong public, and praised Hong Kong's conscious society. Ai also mentioned that his detention by the Chinese regime was hellish (Chinese: 九死一生), and stressed that he is forbidden to say too much to reporters.^[119]

After his release, his sister gave some details about his detention condition to the press, explaining that he was subjected to a kind of psychological torture: he was detained in a tiny room with constant light, and two guards were set very close to him at all times, and watched him constantly.^[120]

In November, Chinese authorities were again investigating Ai and his associates, this time under the charge of spreading pornography.^[121][122] Lu was subsequently questioned by police, and released after several hours though the exact charges remain unclear.^[123][124]

Unpaid taxes and fines[link]

In June 2011, the Beijing Local Taxation Bureau demanded a total of over 12 million yuan (US $1.85 million) from Beijing Fake Cultural Development Ltd in unpaid taxes and fines,^{[125][126][127]} and accorded three days to appeal the demand in writing. According to Ai's wife, Beijing Fake Cultural Development Ltd has hired two Beijing lawyers as defense attorneys. Ai's family state that Ai is neither the chief executive nor the legal representative of the design company, which is registered in his wife’s name." Lawyer-friend Liu Xiaoyuan has initiated an internet donation (or 'loan') campaign to help Ai to pay the unpaid taxes.^[128] They have reportedly received 1 million yuan.^[129]

Lawyers acting for Ai submitted an appeal against the fine in January 2012; the Chinese government subsequently agreed to conduct a review.^[130]

See also[link]

	People's Republic of China portal
	Biography portal
	Visual arts portal
	Politics portal

• 83598 Aiweiwei – Asteroid named after Ai Weiwei
• WeiWeiCam

References[link]