Ai Weiwei on show in Rome
A mammoth work by Ai Weiwei is inaugurated at the Baths of Diocletian: “The Human Comedy” is a chandelier of 2000 pieces of blown glass
After the premiere of the Turandot at the Opera House on the evening of March 22, 2022, with the special direction of Ai Weiweiinaugurates on March 25 a mammoth work of the Chinese artist: The Human Comedy. Installed in room XI of the Baths of Diocletian, The Human Comedy is a monumental chandelier, made up of 2000 pieces of glass blown and melted in the workshops of the Berengo study a Murano. The pieces of glass reproduce anatomical fragments, from the bones of the pelvis to the liver, from the brain to the intestine, for a work eight meters high and six meters wide. In addition, subjects characteristic of his poetics appear: crabs, bats, animal skulls and even the bird-symbol of Twitter. Just like for the scenography of the Turandoteven inside The Human Comedy Ai Weiwei was inspired by the Eternal City, focusing on the link between the city and death, both during the Roman Empire and in the Baroque period: on the one hand, the convivial larvae, models of articulated skeletons that the Roman patricians displayed on the tables during banquets, such as I remember diedI; on the other, the church of Santa Maria dell’Immacolata Concezione, with five rooms inside decorated with the bones of 4000 friars.
THE HUMAN COMEDY OF AI WEIWEI IN THE NATATIO DELLE TERME
The work was conceived for the environment constitutes cheva the water reserve of the natatio: it is the “Largest outdoor pool in the world‘antiquityaone meter and fifty centimeters deep by 4000 square meters “come and write Ludovico Pratesi in its critical text. “L’Ai Weiwei’s work stands as a strong and powerful sign with universal aspirations, underlined by the title, which refers to all‘complete work by the French writer Honorè de Balzac, published in 1842 ″. Why did Ai Weiwei choose to make a chandelier? “It is a glamorous object that is exhibited at home, for example in a living room”replies to the artist. “It is my need to include death in our daily lifeato connect an interior design object to what happens outside the home, in the world“. The Human Comedy inaugurate in conjunction with the exhibition change of perspectiveAnd dedicated to the same artist at Galleria Continua, in the Hotel St. Regis, also in Rome.
– Giorgia Basili
Rome // from 25 March to 3 April 2022
Ai Weiwei – The Human Comedy
Baths of Diocletian
https://www.aiweiwei.com