Ai Weiwei announced that he will produce an artwork about war and peace in Kyiv, specifically addressing the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia. The project, titled Three Perfectly Proportioned Spheres and Camouflage Uniforms Painted White, will be showcased at the city’s Pavilion of Culture, the Soviet-era exhibition hall known also as Pavilion 13. The installation will open on September 14th and be open to the public until November 30th.
“In this era, being invited to hold an exhibition in Kyiv, the capital of a country at war, I hope to express certain ideas and reflections through my work,” Ai said in a statement. “My artworks are not merely an aesthetic expression but also a reflection of my position as an individual navigating immense political shifts, international hegemonies, and conflicts. This exhibition provides a platform to articulate these concerns. At its core, this exhibition is a dialogue about war and peace, rationality and irrationality.”
Three Perfectly Proportioned Spheres and Camouflage Uniforms Painted White will feature similar spherical forms to Ai’s “Divina Proportione” series, created between 2004 and 2012. This series was inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s mathematical illustrations, first depicted in a book of the same name. In the new artwork, the three spheres will be made of metal, covered in camouflage fabric, and painted over with a thin layer of white paint.
“Of course, whenever you cover something, there’s still something underneath,” Ai said. “So I give extra meaning to how we’re dealing with reality and which layer of reality we’re dealing with. And is reality just what we are seeing or what we understand?”
Ai is recognized for his consistent and outspoken activism against the Chinese government and global conflicts, including the Syrian Civil War in 2016. One of his most notable political artworks is Remembering (2008), which held the Chinese government accountable for negligence that led to mass death during the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. In 2011, his continued political dissent led to his arrest and subsequent 81-day detention.
The Seattle Art Museum is currently mounting a retrospective, “Ai, Rebel: The Art and Activism of Ai Weiwei,” which will be on view through September 7th. Other recent museum exhibitions, at Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y Leon in Spain and Ordrupgaard in Denmark, closed on May 18th and January 19th, respectively.
