And so yeah, every day I just do collecting, it's just some kind of habit. You know my mum said she's very jealous I gave so much passion to those items, I don't even talk to her that much. I start washing them because it looks dirty and smelly. So every day I go to an antique market, and I bring back so many things. It's all fake fabricated, but that moment it’s so much. But I didn't realise this golden movement because now you don't see anything. So for curiosity I say, I need to see those things as some kind of material evidence, because you only see those materials in museums, but it is everywhere in China. So I realised a lot of materials for me, that should be very expensive, but they sell at a very, very low price, unbelievably low. So the farmers bring whatever they find to the city to sell it. And talk about why I started collecting, during that time China had just opened up and I realised I have seen so many things I have never seen before because they're digging everywhere, fixing the roads, or building new cities, so they find a lot of materials, and everybody wants to get rich. And the problem is I don't read those books, so I have to give it to people or something, you know. And some books I realise I have five copies, exactly the same. I don't really know why I get a second copy. If I buy a book, and see another bookshop with the book I make a second copy. If you bought one, and then buy another one, then you have a collection. I do this for my own curiosity and, I think, I'm a very stubborn person, I repeat my act. I never really think that, you know, I don't have a purpose really. When you went back to China in 1993 after a decade in New York, you started collecting, why? Why were you interested in collecting and what kind of things were you interested in?ĪWW: It's a process. Collecting is, I think, a key part of your practice. These incredible works of accumulations of vast amounts of objects that Weiwei has collected over the last 30 years. Some of you will have seen, some of you will see later. JM: Lets go back to the origins of the show, which are about 30 years old I would say, when you started collecting, because the real core of the show is the fields on the floor. How do you feel about the show Weiwei?Īi Weiwei: I have no feeling about the show. It's been go, go, go to get it open so this is a chance for us to go a little bit deeper into some of the issues underlying the show and some of the questions Weiwei’s asking of himself, and of you. Weiwei and I haven't really had a chance to sit down and talk about the show properly since it's opened, or since we've installed it. Weiwei has spoken a lot about this exhibition in the last few days. Ai Weiwei reflects on what the works in the exhibition mean to him, and how they embody the tensions between past and present, precious and worthless, hand and machine. Their discussion encompasses how design is a language that communicates across huge time periods, the ways objects are a form of evidence and the ethics of handmade things. Ai explores how his obsessive collecting of historical artefacts over the last thirty years has shaped his thinking about design, making and his homeland, China. In this episode, the Design Museum’s Chief Curator Justin McGuirk talks to artist Ai Weiwei about his new exhibition Ai Weiwei: Making Sense. Every episode we bring you the most important insights into design, from our archive of live recordings, and explore new perspectives on stories at the heart of our exhibitions.
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