Ai Weiwei is one of contemporary art’s greatest practitioners. He has been a voice for artistic and personal freedom of expression for decades within his native China and around the world.
This publication offers a compelling exploration of censorship and self-censorship. Drawing on his personal experiences and advocacy for human rights, Ai Weiwei provides a uniquely informed perspective. He examines how censorship persists in authoritarian regimes as well as subtly within democratic frameworks, corporate power, the arts, and social media, arguing that its concealed and pervasive nature poses a significant threat to genuine expression. This thought-provoking work by a singular voice invites readers to critically reconsider power, ideology, and the boundaries of free speech.
Reviews
As it defines censorship, Ai Weiwei's book eloquently defends self-expression as essential to both human freedom and the pursuit of a meaningful life… Timely [and] important.
— Kirkus Reviews
A small but mighty new book…that packs in ever-timely reflections from an artist whose entire life and career have been marked by state persecution… A reminder that the power to reclaim freedom of speech is in our hands.
— Hyperallergic
Part memoir, part report… Ai takes on the topic from many different angles, showing how censorship takes different forms in the West than it does in China, and what it might look like in the age of AI.
— Art in America
Contributors
Ai Weiwei
Author
Ai Weiwei (b. 1957, Beijing) is renowned for making strong aesthetic statements that resonate with timely phenomena across today’s geopolitical world. From architecture to installations, social media to documentaries, Ai uses a wide range of mediums as expressions of new ways for his audiences to examine society and its values. Ai is the recipient of the Ambassador of Conscience Award from Amnesty International and the Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent from the Human Rights Foundation. His work is the subject of numerous art monographs and exhibition catalogs, and he is the author of 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows: Two Lives, One Nation and a Century of Art Under Tyranny in China.
