Ai Weiwei's 'Neither Nor' emphasises ambiguity for greater possibilities

Ai Weiwei, arguably one of the most influential contemporary artists of today, is also a sculptor, painter, performer, documentarian and an incomparable human rights activist and journalist. Impossible to label, Weiwei has come to be known as an innovative creative who effortlessly combines art, life and political commitment.

Tracing his prolific career from 1995 to today is the exhibition Neither Nor, running from April 13 - September 01, 2024, at Galleria Continua. The show transforms the art gallery in Italy with a large selection of new works crafted with LEGO bricks as well as his archival projects made from porcelain, wood, marble, bamboo and assemblages of different materials.

The renowned Chinese artist expounds on the exhibition’s title: “In the current era we find ourselves faced with a cultural panorama that tends towards extremes, where everything is reduced to a binary choice between black and white. This trend is deeply backward and troubling and is reminiscent of authoritarian periods in history…Times in which, not only were human rights seriously violated, but also the very essence of human nature and the collective beliefs of ordinary people were profoundly damaged.”

“The title, Neither Nor, is intended to convey that, in most cases, our thinking is not limited to absolute truths or single interpretations but rather exists in a state of ambiguity that allows for greater possibilities and debate. It is within this state of ambiguity that human thought and culture, including art, find the environment and space to thrive. As a result, it is often difficult to provide definitive yes or no answers; regardless of the answer, there is a strong sense of exclusivity and a lack of tolerance for alternative perspectives,” he continues.

On the gallery’s first floor, Neither Nor offers (for the first time), a comprehensive survey of his works created between 2019 and 2023, via an assembly of hundreds of toy bricks. Weiwei explains how LEGOs represent personal messages and stories from his past, utilising digital fragmentation, pixels, segmentation and disconnection to create a unique freedom for precise reproduction. This creative channel is distinct from the widely used order, method and composition, akin to ancient mosaics, the presentation of fabrics and carpets, and early printing methods.

“This is the linguistic advantage of computer technology and a figurative presentation of an intelligent logical system for the digital age…The existence and logic of using LEGO as a structure are surprisingly consistent with the logic of my expression on social media, including tweets and Instagram images. Both include temporal and spatial factors, the flattening, fragmentation and expropriated continuity of media and reality, including existence itself, ideologies, politics and events and linguistic approaches to culture and dreams,” as Weiwei puts it.

The exhibits at Galleria Continua’s San Gimignano space are categorised and displayed chronologically: the first two rooms greet with the Renaissance, with the Sleeping Venus with Coat Hanger (2022), a work based on the painting attributed to Giorgione in which Weiwei inserts (next to the Roman goddess of fertility), a hanger in memory of self-induced brutal abortions, before pregnancy termination became legal. In The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus in Untitled (After Rubens), the repetition of the individual LEGOS restores the colours, the vigour of the bodies and the power of the composition, to which the artist juxtaposes a panda, symbol of contemporary Chinese state power.

Un dimanche après-midi à l’Île de la Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat is reinterpreted with the image of a refugee as Weiwei’s response to the ban on the burkini 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 impersonal language of the coloured bricks translates two of Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous works: La Gioconda, portrayed here smeared with cake after the action of environmental activists and the Last Supper, where the face of Weiwei replaces that of Judas.

Weiwei’s strong bond with tradition and the millenary Chinese culture, towards which the artist manifests deferential respect, accompanied by an incredible ability to project himself into modernity, finds its way into a series of historical works including Treasure Box (2014), Marble Cube (2010) and Porcelain Cube (2009). The garden hosts two large installations named Pick Up Stick (2006) and Pillar (2006).

Stools is an installation made with approximately 3,000 stools dating back to the Ming and Qing dynasties and the Republican era which, connected to each other, form a wooden surface that covers the room's floor. Collected in the villages of northern China, with their solid and simple structure, they speak of a design that has remained unchanged for hundreds of years.

The exhibition concludes with Huantou Guo (2015), a floating mythological creature crafted from bamboo and silk. Since 2013, Weiwei has used traditional Chinese kite techniques and the Shanhaijing (Classic of Mountains and Seas) as inspiration to create large-scale, three-dimensional works that push the boundaries of kite craftsmanship.

“A profound connoisseur of the tradition of his native country, he interprets motifs, manufacturing processes and traditional materials in a playful and iconoclastic way, denouncing the contradictions between the individual and the community in the contemporary world,” the gallery states.