Ai Weiwei at Rubelli

Ai Weiwei is turning Rubelli’s Milan showroom into a silk installation that opens April 16 and runs through May 15. (rubelli.com) The project is called *Ai Weiwei: About Silk* and is installed at Rubelli’s showroom at Via Fatebenefratelli 9 in Milan. Artribune lists the public dates as April 16 to May 15, with a preview opening on April 16 at 6:30 p.m. by invitation. (artribune.com) Public hours shift across the run. Artribune says the showroom is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on April 17 and 18, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. from April 20 to 25, and then 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays from April 27 to May 15. (artribune.com) Rubelli says visitors will enter a room wrapped in silk lampas, a dense woven fabric, made from silk and metallic thread. The company says the installation reproduces Ai’s design *The Animal that Looks like a Llama but is Actually an Alpaca* across the walls and a sofa he designed for the space. (rubelli.com) The imagery carries Ai Weiwei’s usual political symbols into a decorative material. Rubelli says the woven motifs include surveillance cameras, handcuffs, chains, the Twitter bird, and the llama or alpaca figure Ai has used as a sign of dissent against censorship in China. (rubelli.com) Rubelli says this is the first time Ai Weiwei has put his message into silk. The company frames that choice as a link between China, where silk originated, and Venice, where Rubelli has made furnishing textiles since 1889. (rubelli.com; rubelli.com) That biographical context is built into the work’s symbolism. The Guggenheim says Ai was born in Beijing in 1957 and spent much of his childhood in exile with his family, while the Smithsonian notes he was detained by the Chinese government for 81 days in 2011 and then barred from travel until 2015. (guggenheim.org; si.edu) The installation also extends beyond the main textile room. Rubelli says a second fabric called *Finger* hangs behind two cases designed by Formafantasma, displaying Chinese textile documents alongside pieces from the Rubelli Historical Archive and Rubelli Foundation. (rubelli.com) The timing places the show inside Milan’s spring art-and-design calendar, when brands use Salone del Mobile and Design Week to launch collectible installations as well as furniture. In this case, Rubelli is using a historic weaving technique and Ai Weiwei is using it to restage images of surveillance and protest in silk and gold thread. (rubelli.com; artribune.com)