FT: Ai Weiwei hits brick wall in appeal for Lego help

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei arrives for a news conference about his Einstein Professorship at the University Of Arts (UDK) in Berlin yesterday

Toy company Lego has been attacked by Ai Weiwei, the controversial Chinese artist, in a spat over the Danish group’s refusal to provide a bulk order of its plastic building blocks for an upcoming exhibition in Australia, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.
Mr Ai has of late embroiled himself in a series of public confrontations with foreign institutions, including the UK government and some western journalists, after years of sparring with the Chinese government over human rights and freedom of speech.
According to the FT, on Friday he published a picture on his Instagram account showing Lego’s refusal of his request for a bulk order for an exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne. Ai’s followers on Twitter have since taken up his cause, with some pledging to donate their own childhood Lego sets to his exhibition.
Ai, who called the refusal “an act of censorship and discrimination”, has 293,000 Twitter followers, to Lego’s 300,000.
Roar Rude Trangbaek, a Lego spokesman quoted by the UK-based newspaper, said: “In cases where we receive requests for donations or support for projects — such as the possibility of purchasing Lego bricks in very large quantities, which is not possible through normal sales channels — where we are made aware that there is a political context, we therefore kindly decline support”.

ai to be berlin lecturer, splitting time with mainland

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is embarking on a three-year guest lecturer job at a Berlin university, declaring that he will include a project on refugees in his teaching but that he doesn’t plan explicitly to address human rights. Ai, who was detained in China in 2011 and released after 81 days in jail, is starting the guest professorship at Berlin’s University of the Arts more than four years after he was named to the post and three months after Chinese authorities finally returned his passport. Ai said yesterday he’s chosen 16 students for his course. He told reporters: “I’m not encouraging any students to be like me.” He said he plans to go back and forth between Berlin and China “under the condition that they let me in and out.”