News & Notes: Scheduled Ai Weiwei talk postponed to spring

The University has postponed a lecture by Chinese artist and government dissident Ai Weiwei, who designed the sculptures currently on display outside Robertson Hall. The lecture was scheduled for Oct. 10, but Ai will be unable to travel outside China due to the government’s continued hold on his passport, the artist explained in interviews with The New York Times and The Daily Princetonian last month.

Ai had been scheduled to speak in a 4:30 p.m. public talk moderated by Wilson School professor Bart Gellman titled “Human Rights and Public Policy.” That talk has been postponed to spring 2013, according to the Wilson School’s website on Ai’s installation. A 2:30 p.m. panel titled “Art in a Democratic Society,” featuring experts on Chinese art and human rights, will continue as planned.

Following the Sichuan earthquake in 2008, Ai pushed for an investigation into shoddy construction practices by the government that may have exacerbated death tolls. While attempting to speak with an investigator in August 2009, Ai was beaten by police and required emergency brain surgery to stop internal bleeding. A studio Ai opened in Shanghai was demolished by the government in January 2011. Ai has also been arrested several times over the past few years, released most recently in June 2011 following three months of house arrest under accusations of tax evasion.