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M+ Sigg Collection, Hong Kong. By donation, © Ai Weiwei
Ai Weiwei 艾未未
Chang'an Boulevard 長安街
2004
This video is a record of the view from Chang’an Boulevard, a forty-five-kilometre road that divides Beijing in half from east to west. The work captures the environment of Beijing, from a rural village to the business district and the political core. Scenes from the video show road construction, power stations with billowing smoke, people walking in the snow-covered Tiananmen Square, and gleaming office buildings. Ai Weiwei made the work based on a simple method of recording one-minute frames with fifty-metre intervals while travelling along the boulevard. The 608 segments that make up over ten hours of film present the rhythm and sights of a city at a time of rapid economic development. Extending from his interest in architecture, Ai’s photography and video work in the 2000s consists of his observations of urban spaces, particularly in Beijing, where he was then living. During this period, he made works that recorded spaces that were empty due to construction and documented the traffic on ring roads. Using a structured method to photograph or film, Ai captures and pieces together fragments that convey specific moments of the urban experience in Beijing.
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