Contemporary mainland artist Ai Weiwei seems to spark controversy everywhere he goes these days - even when he's not there.
Following the opening of his exhibition, 'Ai Weiwei: Absent', at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum late last month - his first major show in any Chinese territory - Taiwan's media exploded with criticism. They charged the museum with failing to speak out on the dissident artist's behalf or work to bring him to the island. Underlying this furore, however, is a larger issue: the Taiwanese public institution's fear of openly criticising the mainland government.
Ai was arrested in April this year at Beijing's international airport while en route to Taipei for meetings with the museum. The planned visit 'may have been one of the reasons they nabbed me. They may have thought that in Taiwan I would say certain things,' said Ai, speaking to a Taiwanese radio station earlier this month. Although the artist is internationally famous and was once thought to be untouchable by the Chinese authorities - his father was famous modern Chinese poet Ai Qing - he was imprisoned for 81 days this summer. He claims he was subjected to sleep deprivation and other psychological torture.
Following his June release, he was charged with tax crimes and fined 15 million yuan (HK$18.3 million). Last week the artist paid 8.45 million yuan to the tax authorities to gain him access to a review of the charges.
However, Ai has said the 50 or so interrogations that he endured in prison did not ask about his finances. Rather, they focused on the 'jasmine revolution', an uprising that never happened but was a rumour among Chinese web users following the Arab Spring.
The Taipei Fine Arts Museum has been planning Ai's solo show since 2009, when its then-director, Hsieh Hsiao-yun, met the 54-year-old artist in Tokyo, where his first retrospective was opening at the Mori Museum. Ai visited the Taipei museum later that year and committed to a large solo show.
