AI Weiwei: Paradigm

If having Ai Weiwei in São Roque is surprising, an exhibition of the
artist’s porcelain and Lego pieces is even more so.
Some might even say that it has nothing to do with São
Roque’s core artist’s theme. But they are mistaken!
The artist’s deeply rooted passion for Chinese ceramics, of
which he is a renowned collector, is wholly in line with my predilection
for 16th and 17th century Portuguese faience, given its evident
syncretism with Chinese porcelain.
Privileged relations between Portugal and The East imposed
Lisbon as the main European market for exotic goods. The allure of the
Orient dominated the Portuguese cultural and artistic role models from
the second half of the 16th century onwards, and porcelain was certainly
not left out. This environment fostered the development of a singular
type of faience, inspired by eastern models, which would later impact
all other European productions. This faience gave rise to the earliest
chinoiserie, well before the transposition of the orientalist taste into
furniture, painting and any other reach of the decorative arts, which in
the 18th century absorbed this aesthetic, mainly in France and England.
The Portuguese potters’ creativity allowed for the insertion of
western elements in Chinese environments, and vice-versa, either in
depictions of landscapes, or by the introduction of selected anthropomorphic
and zoomorphic elements. At any rate, it is noteworthy
the unawareness of the symbolic meaning of the Chinese porcelain
ornamentation, which was reinterpreted through ingenuous decorative
solutions of as much simplicity as beauty.
In the same way that Portuguese craftsmen integrated elements
from oriental influence, so does Ai Weiwei adds and transforms
such ancient patterns into contemporary expressions. Limited not
just to porcelain but expanded in other materials such as his own
version of Girl with a Pearl Earring by Vermeer here presented in Lego
bricks. There’s a belief in fusion of not just ancient and modern but
also between cultures—in this case Portuguese and Chinese of which
Pazar offers a glimpse reporting us to the work of Bordalo Pinheiro,
a reference point to a country in which the artist chose to live.
The exhibition conforms perfectly to our ‘mission’: the fusion
of cultures. São Roque’s project aims at the convergence of people,
cultures and religions, as well at the cohabitation that we have so often
mentioned and shared. We hope that by praising equality—Todos
Diferentes, Todos Iguais (All Different, All Equal)—we can contribute
to the promotion of globalization and to put an end to discrimination.
We thus consider that Ai Weiwei’s exhibition, in his fight for freedom
of expression and against totalitarianism, meets, head on, our purpose.

Thank you Ai Weiwei!

Mário Roque