Saturday, May 23, 2009





Chinese artist and designer Ai Weiwei worked with a group of architects to design the 'Bird's Nest' stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Research the artist and the work to find out why he later called the work a 'fake smile'. Explain how his personal philosophies are different from and at odds with, that of the Chinese government.


Ai Weiwei along with Jacques Harzog, Pierre de Meuron of Herzog and de Meuron, and Stefon Marbach all designed this amazing building called 'The Bird's Nest' which was solely built for the 2008 summer Olympics and the Paralympics.
The stadium cost US $423 Million to build and became the worlds largest steel structure. The incredible steel frames were designed in order to hide the supports for the retractable roof which was later removed from the design along with 9,000 seats due to stability reasons.
17,000 workers worked on building this stadium and an estimated 2 workers died during construction.
Due to the outward appearance this building has it was nicknamed 'The Bird's Nest'- in China a bird's nest soup is very expensive, it is something you only eat on special occasions so in turned it made this structure seem expensive and elegant.
Thisbuliding consists of around 110,000 tons of steel which was all made in China. Pipes are placed under the playing field to gather heat in the winter to warm the stadium up and coolness in the summer to cool the place down.

Since the 2008 Olympics the stadium has not found significant use which therefore has given the designers an opportunity to add something that will bring more people along. They have decided that they will build a shopping mall and hotel into the stadium so that more people will come along and bring them back money. This structure costs the government $9 million to maintain per year.


Ai Weiwei gave 'The Bird's Nest' another name which was 'Fake Smile'. He gave it this name in an attack of the disgusting political conditions in the one-party state. Weiwei told the guardian that he would not attend the opening ceremony or allow himself to be associated with either the government or the games. He linked the Bird's Nest and the general use of art/architecture for the propaganda purposes to a 'fake smile' used to hide the unseemly reality of China.

"China is trying to hide to many things. The whole political structure, the condition of civil rights.....corruption, pollution, education, you name it"

Ai Weiwei says he was not hired by the Chinese governemtn but by a Swiss architectural comapny.
He was questioning weather it's possible for a society that doesn't have democracy to excite the joys and celebrations of it's people. Is it possible for such a society to win international recognition and approval when liberty and freedom of expression are lacking?
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