“You criticise them too much. If this was 1957 they would have killed you already.” – Gao Ying, Ai Weiwei’s mother
“I’m not a political artist. I am just political.” -Ai Weiwei
July 24th, 2014. For many, the intersection between art and politics has become the tempest in the teapot. World renowned artists who bring international acclaim to their respective countries sometimes walk that fine line when their personal views segue into the prickly fields of sexism, racism censorship and human rights. With such a revered platform from which to express one’s vision, exposing the political and social short comings that runs counter to a government can become a very very dangerous game. Feted Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is forever bucking the entrenched ideologies of his communist government and not only does he pokes this bear ad nauseam but is standing firm in his conviction.
With the Chinese government holding all the cards, the biggest one being his passport, Ai Weiwei will pay a heavy price for his beliefs as a change agent. After a protracted interrogation he was told of his subversion of state power and tax evasion which few believed. An 81 days stint in solitary detention rendering him frail and drawn out was followed up with house arrest. Why? From a government perspective, the psychological rippling effect of muzzling the high profile and privileged life of Ai Weiwei will pay dividends tenfold in controlling the masses. Just as in art, politics has the power to transform freedom into fallacy with the mere stroke of a pen. “Ai Weiwei The Fake Case” illustrates what happens when the most powerful man in the art world calls out the Chinese government for denying its own people their basic human rights.
Holding strong to an antiquated Red Army doctorine built on secrecy and control, the Chinese government has positioned itself as a relic of cold war ideals as it struggles to transition in the modern age. Weiwei’s subversive acts of blogging and internet activities made him public enemy #1 stoking new fears of a Jasmine Revolution. As he emphatically said while snubbing his nose at government authority, “dying is not being heard therefore I must speak out”. The man behind such iconic installations as The 100 Million Sunflower Seeds at the Tate Modern, the design of the 2008 Olympic Birds Nest Stadium and his recent sculptors of Zodiac Heads still wields considerable power. And that power will not sit idly by. From 81 days of confinement and despair came a new inspiration for change.
Director, Andreas Johnsen has crafted an intimate and powerful experience of the fishbowl like surveillance and restrictions from which Ai Weiwei and his family must endure. Add to that a meritless lawsuit lacking any form of due process which he aptly coined ’The Fake Case’, a play on his company name and the falsehoods with which the accusations were based. What makes this doc so compelling is how Johnsen never waivers from giving Ai Weiwei a platform to disrupt or exposing the creative process from within. Nowhere is this defiant process more visible than the wide angle installation of the oversized neon letters F-U-C-K symbolically placed on a 15 foot brick wall in Ai Weiwei’s courtyard garden. Like a clarion call to the establishment this installment needs no explanation.
Mining the roots of Ai Weiwei’s L’Enfant terrible came in the form of intimate meditative conversations between Ai Weiwei and his mother Gao Ying who illuminates him on the prosecution his father and other intellectuals faced by the state in the 1950’s. Ai Weiwei fights back the best way he knows how, by creating a ground breaking art installation S.A.C.R.E.D. that represented his confinement. Throughout this medley of Kafkaesque mayhem Ai Weiwei still made time to reconnect with his son Ai Lao and girlfriend Wang Fen adding normalcy between mind numbing surveillances. Much needed levity to this dour subject matter came when an exhausted Ai Weiwei falls asleep in mid conversations and subsequently becomes the object of an impromptu photo shoot. In rounding out the narrative, Johnsen peppers the story line with friends and confidantes like NYU Law School Professor Jerome A. Cohen, Art Collector Jeremy Walsh and interviews from British and German journalist to add further perspective on his plight. Although meticulously researched, on balance, Johnsen’s insular perspective could have used a much needed infusion of other Chinese artists, dissidents or politicos who to have spoken truth to power.
Verdict: 3.5 out of 5: When having an opinion is tantamount to blasphemy against a clandestine Chinese government, Ai Weiwei unfiltered musings continue to reverberate against the establishment. Capturing his mild mannered exterior and welcoming eyes belies the conviction of a man that makes him even more of an enigma. Breaking through a tough exterior, Ai Weiwei The Fake Case revealed more about the demise of civil liberties and the illusions of freedom than the celebration of art. Johnsen’s cloak and dagger narrative and smart pacing captures an updated, fluid noirish quality of big brother and government intervention. Art here is merely a subtext to the heavy handed legal, civil and political dramas playing out on screen. The even keel upon which Ai Weiwei religiously maintains his composure is a testament to the strength of the man, his art and his politics.
Silence is never golden for intellectuals in China.
Genre: Documentary, Drama
Country: Denmark, China, UK
Language: English, Mandarin
Year: 2013
Director + Cinematographer: Andreas Johnsen
Writer: Andreas Johnsen
Producer: Katrine A Sahlstrøm, Rosforth and Danish Documentary
Executive Producers: Andreas Johnsen, Sigrid Dyekjær
Website: http://thefakecase.com/
Runtime: 86 minutes
Cast: Ai Weiwei, Ai Lao, Jerome A. Cohen, Wang Fen, Pan Haixia, Yunchang He, Zyangyang Li, Larry Walsh, Jeremy Wingfield, Gao Ying, Angus Walker, Silke Ballweg, Zhiqiang Pu,
