Ai Weiwei Sculpture Deliberately Smashed By Notorious Art Attacker
Photo 106915834 © Denis Makarenko | Dreamstime.com
Things took a shattering turn at the Palazzo Fava in Bologna, Italy, during the private opening of Ai Weiwei’s exhibition, Who am I?. On September 21, a man intentionally destroyed one of the artist’s prized porcelain sculptures.
The vandal, identified as 57-year-old Czech national Vaclav Pisvejc, is no stranger to controversy in the art world, having previously made headlines for assaulting Marina Abramovic.
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In security footage released by the Chinese activist and artist, the culprit was recorded calmly hanging around the piece before shoving it off its display. The sculpture, titled Porcelain Cube, was crafted using traditional qinghua porcelain techniques from Jingdezhen, a painstaking process that took over a year.
The destruction left the artist and attendees stunned. Ai expressed his dismay, lamenting the countless hours of craftsmanship lost in a single, thoughtless act.
Pisvejc was soon apprehended by local authorities after the incident. It later emerged that he had approached Ai earlier, attempting to get the artist to read his personal notes on the artist’s memoir, 1,000 Years of Joys and Sorrows.
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Despite the disruption, the exhibition’s organizers were determined not to let Pisvejc’s actions overshadow Ai’s work. In a swift response, they covered the fragments with a cloth and removed them from view, as instructed by Ai’s team. Plans were immediately set in motion to replace the shattered sculpture with a life-sized print and an explanatory label, ensuring that visitors would still be able to appreciate the concept behind the original piece.
Questions remain about how Pisvejc managed to gain access to the invitation-only event, but the museum confirmed that the retrospective’s public opening went as scheduled.
Ai related to Artnet News that the sound of the impact was so audible, he imagined a “terrorist attack” had occurred at first. He added that while no one was harmed, the loss of the piece was a heavy blow, as the porcelain sculpture was “incredibly difficult to create.”
[via New York Times, Hyperallergic, Reuters, Artnet News, images via various sources]
