A fireworks show by Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang outside the Centre Pompidou in Paris last week drew condemnation from activists who previously called for a boycott of the artist earlier this year.
The Paris performance, titled Le Dernier Carnival (The Last Carnival), was staged on October 22, during Paris Art Week, to mark the museum’s five-year closure for renovations. Cai collaborated with White Cube gallery to transform the Pompidou’s facade with a combination of pyrotechnics and paint. To produce the work, Cai enlisted a custom-built AI model.
Cai’s firework displays have been subject to sharp scrutiny in recent years. His 2024 show to kick off Getty’s PST ART festival in Los Angeles saw stone-like debris raining down on the crowd, with many attendees requiring first aid after being hit. The increasingly explosive 30-minute show also alarmed people around the University of Southern California’s campus and surrounding neighborhoods due to its deafening blasts and rising smoke. The museum later apologized to the public.
This September, a pyrotechnic stunt staged by Cai at the base of the Himalayas in Tibet sparked scathing criticism online and from the local community.
That performance, titled The Rising Dragon, was staged at an elevation of about 18,000 feet above sea level and released colored smoke across a plateau in Shigatse, a city in China’s Tibet Autonomous Region. Pictures and video shared online of the fiery display sparked concerns about its environmental impact, leading Chinese authorities to investigate the matter. Four Chinese officials were dismissed as a result while Arc’teryx—the outdoor apparel brand that sponsored the project—issued an apology.
For his part, Cai, shared a statement reading: “My studio and I attach great importance to this and humbly accept all criticism of our artistic creation on the plateau with a modest heart and sincerely thank you for your concern and reminders.” The artist also apologized on his studio’s WeChat account.
Months later, Tibetan activists are continuing to call for accountability from Cai and his corporate sponsors. “Tibet is not a setting and spirituality is not a marketing product,” Students for a Free Tibet France, the group that staged the Pompidou protest, said in an Instagram post. “Art cannot be an excuse to destroy.”
The group told Hyperallergic: “China’s occupation of Tibet continues to wreak havoc on Tibet’s fragile ecosystem. And by detonating over a thousand explosives on Tibet’s sacred land, Arc’teryx and Cai Guo-Qiang showed a deep disregard for Tibet’s fragile environment and its people.”
White Cube hasn’t escaped scrutiny, either. On September 25, activists from Students for a Free Tibet gathered outside its London space, chanting “Chinese art, Tibetan destruction!”
ARTnews has contacted White Cube and the artist’s studio for comment.
