Ai Weiwei - New York 1983 1993: New York 1983-1993. Chinese, English, German

Photographic documents of an exciting time The Chinese Ai Weiwei (born 1957 in Beijing, lives and works in Beijing) spent the years 1983 to 1993 in New York. During this time he took over 10,000 black-and-white photographs of life in the American metropolis, most of which he took with him as negatives when he returned to China. After they had remained untouched for years, a selection of 226 photographs made by Ai was developed and exhibited in Beijing's Three Shadows Art Centre in 2010. These pictures can now be seen for the first time in Germany in the Martin Gropius Bau in Berlin and in this illustrated book. For the young Ai Weiwei - now the best known contemporary Chinese artist - his long stay in the United States had a style-formulating effect on his subsequent artistic career. In New York he lived in a tiny apartment in the East Village and was an active member of the district's art scene. In the 1980s, New York was also a place of liberation for Chinese intellectuals from the repression they were subjected to in their homeland. With his camera, Ai captured the conditions in New York: street fights in Tompkins Square Park, transvestites at the Wigstock Festival, homeless people in the Bowery. He also took portraits of Chinese and American artists and friends. Unique documents of an artistically and politically exciting time were created, seen through the eyes of an artist from China. With texts by John Tancock and Stephanie H. Tung, curator, Three Shadows Art Centre, Beijing, and a conversation between Ai Weiwei and Stephanie H. Tung.