AI WEIWEI TO FILL VOID LEFT BY LITTLE MERMAID
Chinese artist and cultural critic Ai Weiwei will create a video installation to be installed in Copenhagen next year on the site the Little Mermaid usually occupies, according to the CBC.
The Little Mermaid, one of the city’s most famous statues, is off to Shanghai to be displayed at a World Expo in 2010. It is to be the centerpiece of the Danish pavilion. The Danish Expo secretariat announced yesterday that Ai’s project had been selected after a design competition to replace the Little Mermaid.
Ai participated in designing Beijing’s Bird’s Nest stadium but later disassociated himself from the project, saying the Olympics were a “pretend smile” that China presented to the world. He was an outspoken critic of the Olympics and has also criticized China’s response to last year’s earthquakes.
His work has been exhibited at venues including Documenta 12 and the Venice Biennale. Danish officials didn’t describe his video project, but said it “registers, documents, and articulates the movements and changes that take place during the months when the mermaid is away.”
