May 10, 2024

Ai Weiwei on show in San Gimignano

The Neither Nor exhibition at the Galleria Continua until 1 September

Conceptual artist, sculptor, painter, performer and writer. Ai Weiwei is one of the most important and influential contemporary artists and a multifaceted artist impossible to label, who skilfully combines art, private life and political commitment.

Galleria Continua is hosting the exhibition Neither Nor, which traces the artist's creative career from 1995 to the present day, until 15 September. A unique event, which sees the entire cinema-theatre of the gallery completely invaded by the artist's works: from a wide selection of works, recent or unpublished, created with toy bricks, historical works in porcelain, wood, marble, bamboo up to assemblages of different materials.

A journey through history beginning in the Renaissance: the first two rooms welcome us with Sleeping Venus with Coat Hanger. To the original painting attributed to Giorgione, Ai Weiwei adds a coat hanger next to the Roman fertility goddess. The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus in Untitled (After Rubens), the repetition of the individual Lego pieces restore the colours, the vigour of the bodies and the power of the composition, to which the artist juxtaposes a panda, a symbol of contemporary Chinese state power. Georges Seurat's Un dimanche après-midi à l'Île de la Grande Jatte is updated with the image of a refugee: Ai Weiwei's response to the burkini ban in France. The image of the locust invasion that wiped out entire crops in the heart of Pakistan in 2020 overlaps with Van Gogh's Le semeur au soleil couchant. The Mona Lisa here portrayed smeared with cake after the action of environmental activists and Last Supper where Ai Weiwei's face replaces that of Judas. Among the unpublished works Cloud images that take us back to the shooting down by a US fighter jet of a Chinese balloon accused of spying on strategic sites.

Ai Weiwei's strong connection to tradition and millenary Chinese culture takes shape in a series of historical works, including Treasure Box (2014); Marble Cube (2010), which combines 1960s minimalist sculpture and memorials made of marble; and Porcelain Cube (2009). The garden hosts two large installations Pick Up Stick (2006), a board game known around the world under different names, and Pillar (2006) large porcelain vases perfectly integrated with the environment. The installation located in the stalls, Stools, is made from around 3,000 stools dating back to the Ming and Qing dynasties and the Republican era, which are linked together to form a wooden surface that covers the floor of the hall.

The exhibition concludes with Huantou Guo (2015), a floating mythological creature made of bamboo and silk.

Galleria Continua
Via del Castello 11, San Gimignano (SI)
+39 0577 943134
www.galleriacontinua.com
Monday-Sunday, 10am-1pm | 2pm-7pm