“Evidence”, Ai Wei Wei’s most recent exhibition in Berlin, Germany, closes with a record attendance of almost 250.000 visitors within 14 weeks. The exhibition was one of the largest ones by the Chinese artist so far, with Berlin’s famous Martin Gropius museum building being the ideal location, offering spacious exhibition halls for Ai Wei Wei’s art installations.

The exhibition was a smashing success and the museum’s director, Gereon Sievernich, very much regretted that Ai Wei Wei himself was not able to come to the exhibition. The artist still has no allowance to leave China and his passport is kept by the Chinese government.

The preparations for the exhibition were managed by video conferences and Ai Wei Wei’s assistants who came to Berlin.

“Evidence” features a recreation of the prison cell in China, where the 56-year-old artist was kept under tight observation and with the lights on 24 /7. The exhibition brought together elements of a modern and a traditional China, like the golden zodiacs, the ancient Ming vases painted with car finish and old Chinese documents used as wallpapers.

The famous steel rebar collected after the terrible earthquake in Sichuan in 2008 was also shown. It was exhibited in a deformed, crooked condition, reflecting criticism against the cheap and quick construction of buildings in China nowadays.

Political criticism was made obvious by the huge reconstruction of the Diaoyu islands which China and Japan have been fighting for since many years. The reconstruction made of pure marble is several tons heavy and had to be brought into the museum through a huge window as the entrance door was too narrow.

The highlight was the presentation of 6.000 wooden stools from the Ming and Qing dynasties in the entrance hall of the museum. These stools have gotten that much popular that replicas are offered for sale, for example in a designer furniture store in a posh district of Berlin for a horrendously high price: almost 300 Euros!

See some impressions of the “Evidence” exhibition in Berlin in this video on YouTube.