Ai Weiwei's Largest UK Exhibition Opens Next Month at the Blenheim Palace

Using 3D laser scans of the building in Oxfordshire, Ai Weiwei was able to help with the installation of his work from China.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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Ai Weiwei is still waiting for the Chinese government to return his passport and can't physically leave China, but that hasn't stopped him from dominating the art world with major exhibitions in countries across the globe. On Sept. 29, a large exhibition of his art installations titled "@Large" made history when it opened on Alcatraz Island, and now the Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire has announced that Weiwei's largest UK exhibition will fill the 300-year-old building from Oct. 1 through Dec. 14.

Using 3D laser scans of the entire building, Ai Weiwei was able to help install some 50 works around the palace, working around the art and furniture in the historic space. "We would have loved for him to be here," said curator Michael Frahm to BBC News, who added that the process of working with an artist in another country involved a lot of trips as well as email and Skype correspondence. Ai Weiwei said that he had to study site plans, materials, and the history of the building for the exhibition. The exhibition is important to his career as an artist, but it is also the first major contemporary art exhibition to be shown at Blenheim Palace, so both parties want everything to be perfect. 

Lord Edward Spencer-Churchill, son of the Duke of Marlborough and founder of the Blenheim Art Foundation, told BBC News that the exhibition is "not a revenue-generating exercise," adding that "visitors are not being charged anything extra to come and see the Weiwei show. If it can widen our audience and our appeal, that will be great." Click here to watch a video walkthrough of a few of the installed pieces, and head to the Blenheim Palace's website for more information about the upcoming exhibition.

[via BBC News]

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