Ai Weiwei is a Chinese contemporary artist and activist Ai grew up in the far northwest of China where he lived under harsh conditions due to his fathers exile As an activist he has been openly critical of the Chinese Governments stance on democracy and human rights He investigated government corruption and coverups in particular the Sichuan schools corruption scandal following the collapse of schools in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake In 2011 Ai Weiwei was arrested at Beijing Capital International Airport on 3 April for allegedly economic crimes He was detained for 81 days without charge Ai Weiwei emerged as a vital instigator in Chinese cultural development an architect of Chinese modernism and one of the nations most vocal political commentators Ai Weiwei encapsulates political conviction and his personal poetry in his many sculptures photographs and public works In doing this he makes use of Chinese art forms to display the Chinese political and social issues After being allowed to leave China in 2015 he has lived in Berlin Germany and since 2019 in Cambridge UK with his family working and traveling internationally
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