Ai Weiwei: Don Quixote Curated by Álvaro Rodríguez Fominaya
9th November, 2024 – 18th May, 2025
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León
Salas 3, 4, 5 y 6
Avda. Reyes Leoneses, 24
León (Spain)
The MUSAC, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León (León, Spain), will present on November 9th Ai Weiwei: Don Quixote, one of the artist’s most ambitious projects to date. With 1,700 square meters of exhibition space and 41 works, many of them monumental, the show includes pieces created over the past 20 years of the career of this essential creator in the international art scene, known for his ability to merge art and political activism. It is also the first exhibition to extensively showcase his series of paintings made with LEGO bricks. Regarding them, the artist states: “LEGO, like ancient mosaics, textile and carpet designs, or wooden movable-type printing of the Song Dynasty (ca. 1000 AD), embodies a sense of timelessness.”
2017-2021
Courtesy of Ai Weiwei Studio
However, if there is one seminal work that will be on display, it is La Commedia Umana (2017-2021), a chandelier made with 2,000 pieces of black Murano glass and standing over eight meters tall, which speaks to us about the cycle of life and death. Its production lasted four years. The exhibition traverses Ai Weiwei’s central themes, intertwining autobiographical aspects with issues such as the refugee crisis, international politics, or the impact of artificial intelligence on the future of human development.
Courtesy of Ai Weiwei Studio
The show, curated by the museum’s director Álvaro Rodríguez Fominaya, is being designed with the artist exclusively for MUSAC, the only Spanish museum where it will be seen. Ai Weiwei leads a diverse and prolific practice that encompasses sculptural installation, filmmaking, photography, ceramics, painting, writing and social media. A conceptual artist who fuses traditional craftsmanship and his Chinese heritage, Ai Weiwei moves freely between a variety of formal languages to reflect on the contemporary geopolitical and sociopolitical condition. Ai Weiwei’s work and life regularly interact and inform one another, often extending to his activism and advocacy for international human rights.
Courtesy of Ai Weiwei Studio
Ai Weiwei has exhibited extensively at institutions and biennials worldwide, including at Design Museum, London (2023); Albertina Modern, Vienna (2022); Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto (2021); Brooklyn Museum, New York (2014); Turbine Hall, Tate Modern, London (2010; documenta 12, Kassel (2007); among others.
Ai Weiwei: Don Quixote opens on the 9th of November, 2024 until the 18th of May, 2025 at Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León
©2024 MUSAC
Art Plugged is a contemporary platform inspired by a relationship with the broader arts communities. We provide our audience with curated insight into the world of art, from exhibitions to artist interviews and more.
