CUBO ET EXCUBO: Ai Weiwei at Blenheim Palace

Thursday, 9 October 2014

Ai Weiwei at Blenheim Palace

Ai Weiwei, icon of China, renowned as much for his courage in defying power as for his art, has chosen Blenheim Palace, seat of the dukes of Marlborough for his new exhibition. On the face of it an unlikely choice. One of England's great buildings, UNESCO World Heritage site, a stately home on a stupendous scale where visitors come to be overawed by the architecture, enjoy the Capability Brown gardens and recover afterwards with a cup of tea in the shop, not to appreciate conceptual art. The choice reveals a wicked sense of humour. While the Brits may think of their country as Tate Modern, Damien Hurst and Tracy Emin, to the rest of the world, Britain is Downton Abbey and the Royal Family.

Ai Weiwei was invited to exhibit here by the Blenheim Art Foundation, creation of the duke's younger son Lord Edward Spencer-Churchill. Even though the artist is unable to leave China, due to his challenging relationship with the state, accepted. Perhaps one of the reasons he did so is because Blenheim is the birthplace of Winston Churchill; the room where the great war leader was born is preserved as a shrine. So from his studio in Beijing, Ai Weiwei curated the most comprehensive show of his work in Britain, in these extraordinary surroundings.

Any idea that his work would be overawed by the scale of the surroundings is immediately dispelled in the entrance hall. Here hangs a colossal chandelier whose magnificence dazzles, even these opulent surroundings. What follows is stunning, the work of 'one of the most influential cultural figures of the 21st century' in one of the great secular buildings of Europe. A fabulous juxtaposition. Smile.