Exhibition view of Ai Weiwei’s Neither Nor at Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, 2024
Image: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio; Courtesy of Galleria Continua
Replete with experimental and dissident works, the ongoing show at Galleria Continua’s San Gimignano space traces the prolific contemporary artist’s oeuvre from 1995 to today.
Ai Weiwei, arguably one of the most influential contemporary artists of today, is also a sculptor, painter, performer, documentarian and an incomparable human rights activist and journalist. Impossible to label, Weiwei has come to be known as an innovative creative who effortlessly combines art, life and political commitment.
Tracing his prolific career from 1995 to today is the exhibition Neither Nor, running from April 13 - September 01, 2024, at Galleria Continua. The show transforms the art gallery in Italy with a large selection of new works crafted with LEGO bricks as well as his archival projects made from porcelain, wood, marble, bamboo and assemblages of different materials.
The renowned Chinese artist expounds on the exhibition’s title: “In the current era we find ourselves faced with a cultural panorama that tends towards extremes, where everything is reduced to a binary choice between black and white. This trend is deeply backward and troubling and is reminiscent of authoritarian periods in history...Times in which, not only were human rights seriously violated, but also the very essence of human nature and the collective beliefs of ordinary people were profoundly damaged.”
“The title, Neither Nor, is intended to convey that, in most cases, our thinking is not limited to absolute truths or single interpretations but rather exists in a state of ambiguity that allows for greater possibilities and debate. It is within this state of ambiguity that human thought and culture, including art, find the environment and space to thrive. As a result, it is often difficult to provide definitive yes or no answers; regardless of the answer, there is a strong sense of exclusivity and a lack of tolerance for alternative perspectives,” he continues.
On the gallery’s first floor, Neither Nor offers (for the first time), a comprehensive survey of his works created between 2019 and 2023, via an assembly of hundreds of toy bricks. Weiwei explains how LEGOs represent personal messages and stories from his past, utilising digital fragmentation, pixels, segmentation and disconnection to create a unique freedom for precise reproduction. This creative channel is distinct from the widely used order, method and composition, akin to ancient mosaics, the presentation of fabrics and carpets, and early printing methods.
“This is the linguistic advantage of computer technology and a figurative presentation of an intelligent logical system for the digital age...The existence and logic of using LEGO as a structure are surprisingly consistent with the logic of my expression on social media, including tweets and Instagram images. Both include temporal and spatial factors, the flattening, fragmentation and expropriated continuity of media and reality, including existence itself, ideologies, politics and events and linguistic approaches to culture and dreams,” as Weiwei puts it.