'Ai Weiwei: Making Sense' at the Design Museum, London, UK

28 March 2023

'Ai Weiwei: Making Sense' at the Design Museum in London runs from 7 April to 30 July 2023, and is the artist's first exhibition focusing on design, mixing recent works with commissioned pieces, and inviting us into a meditation on value and humanity, art and activism.

This major exhibition, developed in collaboration with the artist, will be the first to present his work as a commentary on design and what it reveals about our changing values. Through his engagement with material culture, Ai explores the tension between past and present, hand and machine, precious and worthless, construction and destruction.

The exhibition draws on Ai's fascination with historical Chinese artefacts, placing their traditional craftsmanship in dialogue with the more recent history of demolition and urban development in China. The result is a meditation on value – on histories and skills that have been ignored or erased. Some of the artist’s most important works are displayed alongside collections of objects that have never been seen and new commissions made for the exhibition.

'Ai Weiwei: Making Sense', 7 April – 30 July 2023.

Find further information via the Design Museum.

Image © Ai Weiwei, courtesy Design Museum. Photography by Ed Reeve.