Renowned artist and human rights activist Ai Weiwei discusses life, art, and politics in a conversation with respected theater director Peter Sellars and Orville Schell, Director of the Center on US-China Relations at the Asia Society. Ai’s unprecedented installation on Alcatraz in 2014–15, @Large, left an enduring mark on the Bay Area’s cultural landscape. In this talk, Ai will address issues of exile, imprisonment, repression, and advocacy that have infused his personal life and artistic work with fellow artist Sellars, himself an avid student of Chinese history and culture, and Schell, a leading expert on China and the Far East. This program continues a series of campus talks about China led by Schell, who is former Dean at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.
Co-presented by Cal Performances, BAMPFA, and Townsend Center for the Humanities.