Circle of animals / zodiac heads

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

When Ai Weiwei's Circle of Animals / Zodiac Heads is a current exhibition , which took place in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, London and Taipei. This installation started on September 25, 2010 and will be on view until at least October 2015 [obsolete] . These are twelve bronze animal heads, each three meters high , which Ai has reconstructed several times and also produced in a smaller version made of gold-plated bronze, "museum-compatible".

Work description

When looking at the installation, the viewer first perceives twelve three-meter-high bronze animal heads standing on a pole. These are signs of the zodiac from the Chinese horoscope.

According to Chinese tradition, everyone is born under one of these symbols, which can be assigned to our year of birth. Each animal has its meaning and represents something different. Western society is used to other zodiac signs, in which not only animals play a role, but also signs such as Gemini, Virgo or Libra. Compared to the Chinese, Europeans are also used to other animals, such as the ibex. Unrealistic and fictional animals like the dragon do not exist in the West. These zodiac signs also have no personal characteristics, but represent a personality. The mentioned differences indicate a difference between the two cultures.

The sculptures were made and modeled from bronze in China. On September 25, 2010 they were installed at the 29th São Paulo Biennale . Ai often sets up figures in the same way, namely in a semicircle with the animal's face forward. The heads are all presented as if impaled on poles, with each bronze pole having the same decoration that looks like a tree trunk.

It is noteworthy that the figures surround an already existing fountain, the reflection of which makes the bronze figures look a bit greener to the viewer and depending on where you position yourself, all the stares from the three-meter-high animal heads are directed at the viewer. These two effects give the installation a frightening and surrealistic effect.

Ai Weiwei first came up with the idea in 2008 to create these sculptures and then put them outdoors so that this art is visible to every passerby in public space . It is his intuition that everyone looks at his work, asks himself questions and informs himself about it, because each of his works has a certain message. It is one of the Chinese conceptual artist's first and largest public projects.

However, Ai was inspired by a water clock from the Yuanmingyuan Summer Palace in the north of Beijing, also known as Yu Yuan .

Origin of the work

The animals of the Chinese horoscope were determined by the Chinese emperor Jade, also Yu Di , the prince of heaven. According to Asian mythology, he invited all living creatures to celebrate the New Year with him. But only twelve animals were present. A year was set according to the order of their arrival.

During the Qing Dynasty in 1709, a monument was erected in the garden of the old Yuanmingyuan Summer Palace (Chinese 圆明园, Yuánmíng Yuán "Garden of Perfection and Light"), in the north of Beijing served.

Between 1756 and 1759 the Emperor Qianlong had the two Jesuit fathers Giuseppe Castiglione and Michel Benoist build a water clock in the old summer palace, with six figures with animal heads sitting in a semicircle on either side of a fan-shaped basin. The figures were lined up chronologically after their arrival and each of these animals spat water at its hour. Only at lunchtime did all twelve sculptures become active at the same time.

These bronzes, however, are former and destroyed works of the old summer palace, because only ruins are left of it today. These zodiac figures were looted by British and French troops in 1860, at the time of the Second Opium War, and have since disappeared. The Summer Palace was also set on fire to humiliate it. Since then, only ruins remain of the Yuanmingyuan palaces, which have remained one of the largest Chinese tourist attractions. China failed to find these stolen national symbols for 150 years. In 2009 two of the bronze heads, more precisely the rabbit and the rat, were rediscovered in a Yves-St-Laurent collection, as were another five symbols that appeared afterwards. The rest, however, is still missing today. This act of the West, referring to the raids of the Europeans, remained an act of humiliation of their countries in China.

Auctions took place mainly in Paris, where attempts were made to auction off the rediscovered originals. They became popular in the West and all efforts by the Chinese government to get the animal heads back were in vain, because the Europeans did not want to return the animal heads to their original location, the old summer palace. Even the attempt to break off the 2009 auctions was unsuccessful.

Ultimately, in the same year when Cai Mingchao, a Chinese bidder, offered 31.49 million euros for two animal heads and won them, he retrospectively refused to pay it in protest and described his sabotage of the auction as a patriotic one Act. In Cai's opinion, any Chinese citizen would have done so if they had the opportunity, and Cai had the chance to perform this patriotic act. He made the headlines of various newspapers and was even celebrated as a hero in China. His act should wake people up and allow the Chinese to express their opinions. In addition, Cai was invited to the auction as a VIP guest and had not paid any money in advance. In retrospect, Cai had to reckon with consequences, because it is stipulated that whoever wins the offer must also pay it. In addition, these two objects have been stamped as illegal by the Chinese government and therefore they cannot be brought into China - which is another natural reason for Cai Mingchao not to pay for the animal heads obtained.

Interpretative approaches

Circle of animals / zodiac heads, Ai's last work so far, can be seen as a reinterpretation and reinvention of the animal head sculptures from the 18th century by looking back at the history of the Yuanmingyuan Castle.

Since the incident of the resurfaced bronze heads, Ai began working on his Circle of animals / zodiac heads project. In his version, he tried to match the symbols as closely as possible to the originals and, by the way, depicted the animals with an expressive look, which looks different from the look of animal heads from the 18th century. On the surface, you notice that Ai's figure is significantly larger, because the viewer has to look up at the figure. In contrast to the reconstructions, the original animal heads are about two meters smaller. Bronze, the material of plastic, was retained in order to be able to refine the shape and facial features. It is also noteworthy that each of the animal heads have no body, but were placed on a bronze rod by Ai as if impaled, which, unlike the old figures, is the same for every animal. Ais bronze bars act like a tree trunk. However, the ancient animal heads originally had a solid body in contrast to the bronze rod and surrounded the fountain while sitting on their knees. Each of these animals had an attribute with them. The water plays a major role in the figures of the old water clock. It not only tells the time, but also expresses the liveliness of the animals and the castle with its spouting function, since water is a symbol of life and vitality. Ai Weiwei did not continue this function in his work. He himself exhibited the bronze heads at a fountain, but did not want to emphasize their original function as the water clock. It is believed that Ai purposely did not do this to reflect the former head robbery and exposure of China. In addition, Ai dispenses with the chronological representation of the animal heads.

Ai Weiwei changed a lot in his work and reinterpreted the heads by taking inspiration from the old water clock. Small changes would not be noticed, but they still have a completely different effect on the viewer.

Ai himself explains that he is playing with the idea of ​​the real and the fake, and nationalist symbolism. In his opinion, his zodiac signs are only visually similar to the originals from the old summer palace, but they also slip away from this similarity because it is a completely new project from the 21st century and has thus also made itself felt a completely new interpretation.

He wants to state that the tradition of the signs of the zodiac has remained the same and that he only wanted to take it up in order to display it to people a second time and to leave them to their own interpretation. The background and the reason for their creation are not the same. With his work, Ai alludes to the looted figures of the “Old Summer Palace” and thus also to the corresponding act of the Europeans. What matters to Ai is that those who know this story notice it and feel provoked by the newly created work of the animal heads or even appreciate this work. “My work always relates to reality or falsification, authenticity, the level of value and how this value relates to today's political and social understandings and misunderstandings. In my opinion there is a humorous aspect here. The “Yves St Laurent” audition in February 2009 made these aspects much more complicated through the real, forgery, art, looting and the recognition of the objects ”, says Ai Weiwei. This statement confirms Ai's intention to create this work and to whom it is addressed. Everyone can take it differently. That's why Ai made the interpretation versatile, both politically and humorous.

Circle of animals / Zodiac signs is intended to attract viewers from around the world and make it available to the average person by exposing it to the public as everyone has a relationship with a zodiac sign.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ai Weiwei : Circle of animals / zodiac heads. New York 2011, pp. 30-31. http://faculty.risd.edu/bcampbel/AWW_SouvenirBook_FINALFINAL_April4_2011.pdf
  2. ↑ YouTube video