Ai Weiwei: Unbelievable Resentment

Ai Weiwei

In Der Spiegel Online:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,761414,00.html

There hasn't been a sign of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei since he was arrested in early April. And the silence from the Western art world has been deafening as well. SPIEGEL spoke with German curator Roger Buergel, who helped Ai Weiwei on his path to stardom, about why artists have remained so passive.

SPIEGEL: Mr. Buergel, you helped initiate a protest after Chinese artist Ai Weiwei's arrest. The artist, an outspoken critic of the Chinese government, remains missing, but much of the art world has remained noticeably silent. Why is that?

Buergel: I think that most of them are glad to be rid of Ai Weiwei. SPIEGEL: Why?
Buergel: Ai Weiwei succeeded in bridging the gap between art and politics, the only person to have done so in recent years. He has a monopoly in this respect.
SPIEGEL: Are you saying Western artists are jealous of his success?
Buergel: Not directly, but there is an unbelievable resentment. Young Western artists are producing works that amount to nothing more than footnotes in art history, and then this Chinese artist appears who takes a totally different approach and makes 98 percent of the art world look very, very old.

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