“The man destroyed the large blue and white Porcelain Cube at a busy private opening for the exhibition “Who am I?” at Palazzo Fava in Bologna on the evening of September 21. Local police arrested a 57-year-old Czech man who has been identified in Italian media as Vaclav Pisvejc, a provocateur and self-proclaimed artist known for targeting important works of art.”
What it looked like before it was destroyed:
Am i just poor peasant who can’t understand art OR that sculpture looks like bunch of fancy PVC pipe glued together ?
It’s made out of extremely delicate porcelain.
Could’ve made it cheaper using PVC.
LOL, … and it also wouldn’t break as easily!
I saw that piece with my wife and just told her someone broke it and her reaction was “wait, that was actual ceramic? I always tough it was PVC”
It’s modern art most of it aimed at a moral.
As a guess I’m going to assume the point is that it’s a fragile extremely delicate vase with literally no purpose as a vase.
You can’t put anything in it or on it, it’s vapid and empty like… Art.
I’m gunna guess this is collaborative in some way between the two.
It’s using old techniques from Chinese history and applying them in a new way. Ai had to experiment and go through a lot of failure to produce such a different object. I don’t think the cube wireframe was important, just the old method being used to make a modern art piece.
I like the idea of reinvigorating ancient crafting techniques by making modern art. I’m not exactly an art guy so I don’t know if it’s a unique idea but it made me think so I like it.
It’s a cube but for grandma’s.
Yup
Damn, I saw that piece in Rio de Janeiro years ago. The banner on my profile if from that same exposition. There were also other things made of ceramic like a teddy bear and a security camera. Iirc, one of the pieces was a pendrive with a backup of wikileaks.
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Shoulda made that dynasty urn outta PVC
Commentary or not, when does his 2,000 year sentence begin?
Well, seeing as he was hosting a party at a museum, I’m guessing not soon.
“Ai himself is known for smashing works as well. The exhibition’s curator Arturo Galansino noted that several works in the show document the destruction of a precious ceramic. The most famous of these is Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn (1995), a triptych of black-and-white photographs in which the artist holds and then drops a 2,000-year-old vessel. It is a commentary on China’s deliberate erasure of its cultural heritage.”
Okay so this artist also destroys artifacts that are thousands of years old.
“The destruction that Ai Weiwei depicts in his works is a warning against the violence and injustice perpetrated by those in power,” he said. “[It] has nothing to do with this reckless and senseless act carried out by a habitual troublemaker seeking attention by damaging artists, works, monuments, and institutions.”
Imho there are other ways to prove that point.
However it is despicable that his artwork was destroyed by a trouble maker and the perpetrator should be dealt with accordingly.
“No, you don’t understand, it’s ok when I am the one doing it!”
Given that he destroyed the vase to gain popularity, wouldn’t be possible that this is another stunt to make people talk about him?
Notice that his name is even in the headline.
Never saw that art before. Don’t know what it represents. Don’t know anything about the artist. Trashing art is a terrible thing, full stop.
Fuck Ai Weiwei the historical artefact destroying cunt. Destroyed thousands of years of history for his own fame.
For those who, like me, had no idea what this referred to-
https://smarthistory.org/ai-weiwei-dropping-a-han-dynasty-urn-2/
Yeah, that’s just asshole behavior.
Yeah, kind of seems appropriate.
There is a difference between me breaking something I own and you breaking something I own. Also, everything old isn’t particularly valuable, or important. Apparently the vase he broke was quite cheap. If this was one of the last examples of its kind, or if it was particularly well made, but this appears to be neither of these. Still kind of an asshole move, but I wouldn’t say anything of value was lost.
I’ve seen the urn characterized both as rare/expensive and not uncommon/inexpensive. It seems to change depending on the point different articles are trying to make. Perhaps it’s relative.
Depending on the source, I’ve seen a dime a dozen, a couple thousand dollars (not exactly cheap in my books) or a million (which seemed to be about another work of Weiwei’s). I also saw a history site talking about Han pottery being a “minor work” with burial pieces mimicking bronze works from the time. I can’t say just what this was worth before he broke it, and the art world probably inflates its value now that it’s destroyed.
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The man destroyed the large blue and white Porcelain Cube at a busy private opening for the exhibition “Who am I?” at Palazzo Fava in Bologna on the evening of September 21. Local police arrested a 57-year-old Czech man who has been identified in Italian media as Vaclav Pisvejc, a provocateur and self-proclaimed artist known for targeting important works of art.
Ai himself is known for smashing works as well. The exhibition’s curator Arturo Galansino noted that several works in the show document the destruction of a precious ceramic. The most famous of these is Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn (1995), a triptych of black-and-white photographs in which the artist holds and then drops a 2,000-year-old vessel. It is a commentary on China’s deliberate erasure of its cultural heritage.
Ai himself is known for smashing works as well.
Hmmm…
Well Ai Weiwei, it seems you got your answer.
While I doubt the vandal was actually trying to make a comment on the artist’s reputation, it does seem very appropriate that one of his sculptures would get smashed at an exhibition called, “Who am I?”
I like it better broken. It’s more abstract.
I am inclined to agree, but I wonder if it would be even better pieced back together.
I’d like it if it was fixed by means of Kintsugi
I agree. Maybe these two art smashers should just agree to collaborate.
So it’s what, ceramic pipes with my grandma’s dress pattern stenciled on it? NGL, that’s sufficiently stupid to deserve a few whacks with a hammer. I mean hell, I’d never heard of the stupid thing until now, so arguably the defacer did this thing a favor.
ah yes, being able to survive being hit with a hammer, what everyone is looking for from art.
Surely the point of art is that it’s intelligent and provokes thought what the hell does a cube do?
My point is you cannot assign value to something simply because someone claims to be an artist.
Consider this: I pick up a tennis racket and a tennis ball, so does my wife, we go to a tennis court, I hit the ball to her gently, she hits it back: Are we playing tennis or not?
If we are not, what are we doing?
And yet it’s nowhere near the level of Serena Williams, or even the local semi Pro tournament, or probably even the local tennis club.
why does it have it be good, or more accurately for this conversation- why do you have to like it for it even to exist and have a name?
I dont particularly care for The Wiggles, or for Machine Gun Kelly, but both of them produce music. Just because I don’t like it, or think it’s not good doesn’t mean it’s not music. Even a child slowly, shakily playing a basic C major scale and getting it wrong is still “music.” Its not Mozart but it still exists.
There is no “point” or “value” you can attach to tennis, music or sculpture - or other forms and media of art, entertainment, sport, science etc that means it suddenly becomes that. Art you don’t like is still art.
Good riddance, I hate Ai-generated art.
Thanks to much practice from my clumsy wife and daughter and their love for highly breakable stuff… I’ve got a few tubes of epoxy, “Challenge Accepted!”
Ever see a British show called “The Repair Shop”? I bet they could do it…
Gaffer tape will sort it. Trust me, I’ve fixed all kinds of shit with gaffer tape.
It’s all worhless bullshit used exclusively for money laundering and feeding lies to aspiring artists. Burn the entire place down for all I care.
