Lisson Studio: Ai Weiwei on opera

12 June 2020

For our latest Lisson Studio feature, Ai Weiwei speaks about the relationship between his use of performance, film and music and the better known documentary and activist sides of his practice, in a special interview with Lisson’s Curatorial Director, Greg Hilty. To coincide with a screening of Ai’s six and a half hour film work, Heaven and Earth (until Sunday 14 June), the artist discusses how he turned a traumatic public event into an ironic, painstakingly honest and haunting portrayal of injustice, through the medium of operatic song.

Accompanying these videos is a never-before-seen selection of images from the sadly stalled production of Turandot in Rome, now postponed until March 2021, in which Ai hopes to draw on the mythology of China, the political and social realities of today, as well as his own biography and iconography.

Click here to explore the Studio page.