'Ai Weiwei: Button Up!' at Factory International, Manchester, UK

4 February 2026

From 2 July – 6 September 2026, Factory International presents 'Button Up!' a major new exhibition by Ai Weiwei. Monumental in scale and ambition, Ai Weiwei: Button Up! is the artist’s most expansive presentation in the North to date.

Ai Weiwei is known around the world for his uncompromising artistic vision and political activism. From a childhood in exile to surviving secret detention in China, his remarkable life and career have led him to global prominence. Using sculpture, installation, film, photography and architecture, his work is unafraid to ask urgent, critical questions.

In 'Button Up!', the artist turns his lens on two centuries of Chinese and British relations. Taking inspiration from Manchester, a city at the heart of the Industrial Revolution, this exhibition explores how historic systems of trade, empire and exploitation resonate in today’s humanitarian and political crises. Conceived as a total environment, this exhibition brings together new and existing large-scale works on display in the UK for the first time. The monumental installation features porcelain, cotton, glass, bronze and even buttons and toy bricks. Each material contains a story of human invention and consumption. Together, they paint a picture of globalisation.

Find out more via Factory International.

Image: Ai Weiwei, China Flag, 2023, Buttons, fabric, 524 x 295 x 6 cm, 206 1/4 x 116 1/8 x 2 3/8 in, © Ai Weiwei Studio, courtesy Lisson Gallery