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Following on from his blockbuster show at the Royal Academy last autumn, Chinese artist-activist Ai Weiwei is back in London with a new exhibition at the Lisson Gallery. And he wants to get you talking.
Ai Weiwei, 'Fondation', 2015. Installation view, 'Brève histoire de l’avenir', Louvre, 2015. © Ai Weiwei; Courtesy Lisson Gallery Photo by Jack Hems.
The central piece of the show is 'Fondation', an eight-metre floor piece made of stone foundations from Chinese halls that are hundreds of years old. (Quite what strings Ai had to pull to get those, we have no idea.) With a big nod to history, the idea is that it's meant to work like an Ancient Greek agora: a place where people would get together to debate and discuss. So visitors are meant to come along, take a seat and just, you know, chat. About what the future holds, Ai hopes. And not just what's on TV over Christmas.
'Fondation' is at the Lisson Gallery until Jan 7 2017.
See pictures from Ai Weiwei's journey from Beijing to London last year