Ai Weiwei: Life, Revolt, Poetry. An Homage to Ai Qing & Emile Verhaeren
Rik Hemmerijckx, Weiwei Ai, Lieven Van Den Abeele
MER.Books, 2026
€34,90
The lives of father and son Ai Qing (1910–1996) and Ai Weiwei (1957) span more than a century of history—not only of China but also of the Western world. Their lives were shaped by historical events, political circumstances, family situations, and, above all, artistic encounters.
For Ai Qing, this meant the poetry of Emile Verhaeren, whom he had discovered in Paris and was the first to translate into Chinese. For Ai Weiwei, it was his introduction in New York to the work of Marcel Duchamp and Andy Warhol—and the ideas he subsequently introduced to the Chinese avant-garde of the 1990s.
*Life, Revolt, Poetry* presents an overview of the artistic journeys of both father and son. The book reads as two parallel stories that share striking similarities. Both artists also clashed with the Chinese authorities: Ai Qing and Ai Weiwei were both imprisoned and exiled. Both the book and the exhibition are conceived as a tribute by Ai Weiwei to his father and to Emile Verhaeren.
ISBN: 9789493551541
