Princeton University to display a yearlong installation of Ai Weiwei‘s 12 sculpture ‘Circle of Animals/ Zodiac Heads’.  The school has also invited the Chinese artist and activist to campus this Fall.

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Ai Weiwei, involved in a confrontation between conflicting online bloggers in Beijing’s Chaoyang Park, denies physically harming Wu Danhong, an alleged government-paid blogger. “It makes no sense to lie. I did not beat him. The crowd called my name when I approached and Wu panicked a little bit when he saw me.”

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Ai Weiwei warned by police to stay away from his court hearing in Beijing. With his lawyer missing, the Chinese artist and activist is fighting allegations of having unpaid back taxes. Denying the accusations, Ai says that “the price that the authorities will pay for blatantly violating the law is now too large… This case has always been a fabricated case.”

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ArtistsWanted.org and similar start-up websites help expose otherwise unknown artists and their work, like Vicki DaSilva, whose graffiti piece in honor of Ai Weiwei will soon add to the lights in Times Square.

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‬First official trailer released for Alison Klayman’s film on Ai Weiwei “Never Sorry” to debut in theaters on July 27.

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This summer the recently opened Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in London celebrates its 12^th anniversary.  Since 2000, this architectural event has featured temporary structures by such designers as Zaha Hadid and Jean Nouvel.  This year, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, along with Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron (Herzog & de Meuron), known for their design of the Tate Modern and previous collaboration with Ai on Beijing’s Bird Nest National Stadium, has dug down into the Kensington Gardens to create an underground pavilion commemorating its long history.

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‬The Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC has applied for a visa to allow artist Ai Weiwei to attend the opening of his exhibition. “The museum…is “optimistic” that the artist, although still at odds with the authorities, will be allowed to make the trip.”

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‬A new interview with artist and social activist Ai Wei Wei highlights his continued conflict with the Chinese government: ““It has never been important to stay, until now”, “I never really think I have done too much. I just gave one person’s opinion and I tried to be calm and I never did anything to hurt anyone”.

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‪‬Ai Weiwei is one of three awarded the Václav Havel Prize in Norway for Creative Dissent this week. Sponsored in part by Sergey Brin of Google and Peter Thiel, the award is intended to single out activists who highlight “the power of the powerless.”

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‪‬Ai Weiwei and Herzog & de Meurons’ plans for Serpentine Pavilion face slight set back as the prior pavilion foundations— which were integrally incorporated into the new design—had actually been removed

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‪‬Ai Weiwei and architects Herzog & de Meurons’ design renderings for underground Serpentine Pavilion on view in slideshow. The 12th annual version of the pavilion will be completed in time for the London 2012 Festival.

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Gavin Brown and Mark Ruffalo cooking sausages. All photographs by Aubrey Roemer for Art Observed.

The always fresh but now venerable Frieze Art Fair of Regent’s Park, London, has successfully completed its maiden voyage to this side of the Atlantic. The pavilion, designed by Brooklyn-based SO-IL Architects, places Frieze New York on Randall’s Island Park from May 4-7, 2012. The fair is being held in a distinctly snakelike structure that houses 180 leading contemporary galleries presenting works by more than 1,000 artists. There are a number of culinary options as well: Roberta’s, The Fat Radish Café, Frankie’s Spuntino Restaurant, Sant Abroeus Café and the Standard Biergarten.

Entrance to the Frieze Art Fair

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‪‬Ai Weiwei life and work profiled in The Economist, discussing his relations with the Chinese government, “Anything can happen to me, but the art will stay.”

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‪‬Ai Weiwei pens an essay in the Guardian on Chinese censorship, “The internet is uncontrollable. And if the internet is uncontrollable, freedom will win. It’s as simple as that.”

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‪‬Ai Weiwei sues Chinese government over tax issues claiming violations in handling witnesses, evidence, and company accounts

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‪‬Ai Weiwei ordered to shut down 24-hour live stream of his Beijing studio, though he told Radio 4’s World at One that he “won’t be shut down” [AO Newslink]

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‪‬Ai Weiwei voluntarily streams 4-camera home surveillance, with views of office overhead, computer, bedroom, and courtyard, with Twitter feed along bottom of site [AO Newslink]

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‪‬Yayoi Kusama and Phyllida Barlow to create new works for first Kiev International Biennale, titled ‘The Best of Times, The Worst of Times. Rebirth and Apocalypse in Contemporary Art,’ to run May 24 through July 31, 2012, and also include works by Ai Weiwei, Louise Bourgeois, Chapman Bros, and Paul McCarthy [AO Newslink]

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‪‬Tate Modern purchases 8 million hand-crafted porcelain sunflower seeds by Ai Weiwei, the ten tons are nearly one-tenth of the total 100 million seeds from original Tate Turbine Hall Unilever installation, price undisclosed [AO Newslink]

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‪The FT interviews Ai Weiwei at home in Beijing, a city he is forbidden from leaving on terms of his detention since tax evasion charges in June. Amidst outdoor security guards and cameras, punning artwork, and his pet cats, alleged political dissident and acclaimed activist Ai Weiwei reflected: “Police in China can do whatever they want; after 81 days in arbitrary detention you clearly realise that they don’t have to obey their own laws. In a society like this there is no negotiation, no discussion, except to tell you that power can crush you any time they want – not only you, your whole family and all people like you.” As the artists is not supposed to speak to the media, his wife was afterwards questioned at the police station. [AO Newslink]

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Herzog & de Meuron, Ai Weiwei outside their Beijing ‘Bird’s Nest.’ Via Bustler.

The Serpentine Gallery in London announced today that Chinese activist-artist Ai Weiwei and Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron will team up for the 12th annual Serpentine Gallery Pavilion commission. The trio will translate their 2008 collaboration of the ‘Bird’s Nest’ arena at the Beijing Olympics into a twelve pillar pavilion in conjunction with the London 2012 Festival and the London Games. Unearthing the eleven foundations of previous pavilions, a new column will be placed on each, with the twelfth situated as a ‘wild card.’ 1.5 meters tall, the twelfth column will hold a floating platform roof, collecting water and creating a reflecting pool, while also offering the versatility of a ‘dance floor’ once drained.

See the previous eleven pavilions after the jump…

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‪‬’Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry’ awarded U.S. Documentary Special Jury Prize for Spirit of Defiance at Sundance Film Festival [AO Newslink]

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‪ This year’s Sundance Film Festival 2012 includes films on artists ‘Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry,’ and ‘Marina Abramović: The Artist is Present.’ [AO Newslink]

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Ai Weiwei, Forever Bicycles (2012). All photos via Taipei Fine Arts Museum.

Ai Weiwei’s current exhibition and semi-retrospective at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Ai Weiwei, Absent, includes pieces dating back to 1983, including large-scale sculpture and a collection of 100 photographs divided into his two artistic phases—in the East Village, New York and in Beijing, China. “Whenever Ai had a spare moment he would fill it with pictures of the places he visited, people he met, the area he lived,” states the exhibition’s press release. This lends a feeling of immediacy and voyeurism to Ai’s photos, as the viewer is shown a glimpse of the artist’s life as he documents the lives of others.

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Ai Weiwei, Zhang Huan (1994)

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