China's Ai Weiwei starts a global LEGO hunt: Can you spare a brick, brother?
| Beijing
Coming soon to a city near you 鈥� a LEGO collection point so that you can send your second hand bricks to beleaguered Chinese superstar artist Ai Weiwei.
Mr. Ai announced聽Monday聽he would set up a network of collection points after Denmark's聽LEGO Group refused to allow him to buy in bulk the bricks he needs for an upcoming exhibition of his work. Supporters of the dissident artist have flooded social media with offers to donate their own聽LEGO bricks instead, asking where to send them.
Ai accused聽LEGO of 鈥渃ensorship and discrimination鈥� after it turned down his order for a bulk delivery to a gallery in Melbourne, Australia, where he is due to build an installation.
Earlier this year Ai made a splash at a show in San Francisco's聽former Alcatraz prison, where he made a carpet made of 1.2 million聽LEGO bricks portraying political prisoners, including China's jailed Nobel laureate聽Liu Xiaobo.聽
A聽LEGO spokesman said the company, the world's largest toymaker with annual revenues of more than $2 billion, preferred to stay out of politics. Roar Trangbaek wrote in an emailed statement that 鈥渨e refrain 鈥� on a global level 鈥� from actively聽engaging in or endorsing the use of LEGO bricks in projects or contexts of a political agenda.聽Where we are made aware that there is a political context, we therefore kindly decline support鈥� such as offering preferential bulk prices,聽but 鈥渨e do not censor, prohibit or ban creative use of LEGO bricks.鈥�
In an Instagram post聽on Friday, Ai implied that聽LEGO had turned his order down last month in order to protect its business interests in China, which the company鈥檚 2014 earnings report called a future 鈥渃ore market.鈥�
LEGO聽is building a factory in eastern China and plans to establish its Asia distribution center in Shanghai. A new LEGOland Park will soon open in Shanghai, it was announced last week during Chinese President Xi Jinping鈥檚 visit to Britain. The Kirk Kristiansen family that owns 75 percent of the聽LEGO Group also owns 29.9 percent of Merlin Entertainment, which runs the parks, according to the website of the family鈥檚 holding company Kirkbi A/S.
The Global Times, a Beijing daily affiliated with the ruling Communist party, ran an opinion piece by its editor-in-chief聽Monday聽arguing bluntly that 鈥淟EGO does a lot of business in China. It refused to cooperate with Ai Weiwei鈥檚 capriciousness because it has huge interests involved.鈥�
Ai鈥檚 denunciations of聽LEGO on his Instagram and Twitter accounts have prompted a flood of supportive posts from his hundreds of thousands of followers. Many offered to donate their own childhood collections to help build the still secret artwork in Melbourne.
A post on 聽Monday聽declared that the artist 鈥渉as now decided to make a new work to defend freedom of speech and 鈥榩olitical art鈥�. Ai Weiwei Studio will announce the project description and聽LEGO collection points in different cities.鈥� Another post gave the artist鈥檚 Beijing address for those wanting to mail donations to him.
Over the course of his controversial and highly publicized career, Ai has suffered worse indignities than being denied the right to buy聽LEGO bricks on the cheap.
He fell foul of the Chinese government for making artworks drawing attention to shoddy construction methods blamed for the deaths of tens of thousands of schoolchildren in a 2008 earthquake in Sichuan. Subsequently he was assaulted by policemen, saw his Shanghai studio demolished, and was imprisoned for almost three months on accusations of tax evasion. He was confined to Beijing for four years until last August, when his passport was returned, allowing him to resume his international art career.聽
