A notorious vandal destroyed a sculpture by contemporary Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei during an exhibition opening in Bologna, Italy. CCTV footage posted on the artist’s Instagram account documented a man pushing the sculpture over, smashing it, and then wielding a broken piece above his head.
Known Art Vandal Targeted Porcelain Cube
The act of vandalism occurred during the private opening of the new Ai Weiwei solo exhibition Who Am I? on Friday, September 21. Local police tackled and arrested Vaclav Pisvejc, a 57-year-old Czech man and self-proclaimed artist known for targeting significant works of art. It is unknown how Pisvejc gained access to the invitation-only event, of which Ai Weiwei was in attendance.
The museum confirmed that Who Am I? has since opened to the public according to plan. Per the artist’s request, the broken fragments of the vandalized sculpture were covered with a cloth and removed from the Palazzo Fava. Porcelain Cube will be replaced by a photograph of the sculpture alongside a label that explains what happened to it.
“Destroying an Artwork on Display Is Unacceptable,” Says Ai Weiwei
Ai Weiwei was in an adjacent room at the Palazzo Fava when Porcelain Cube was destroyed. “I heard a loud, sharp noise—unusual, almost like an explosion, with a brittle quality,” he said. “I rushed inside to find chaos. Looking through the glass, I saw that the Porcelain Cube—crafted from blue-and-white qinghua porcelain—lay shattered on the floor, with security guards having subdued the person responsible.”
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“Regardless of the motives, I believe that destroying an artwork on display is unacceptable,” continued Ai Weiwei. “Such acts not only undermine the museum’s role as a public space but also pose potential physical threats, beyond merely damaging the meaning an artwork carries.” The artist also noted that Porcelain Cube took over a year to make using a traditional kiln. “Crafted using the finest blue-and-white qinghua porcelain techniques from Jingdezhen, it required numerous attempts and a lot of experiments to produce,” he explained. He has no plans to create a replacement.
Who Is Ai Weiwei?
Ai Weiwei is a Chinese contemporary artist, documentarian, and activist. He is known internationally for undertaking complex installations that convey equally complex—and often provocative—messages, often on the subject of human rights. Who Am I? is the artist’s first solo exhibition in Bologna, Italy. It opened at the Palazzo Fava on September 21 and runs through May 4, 2025.
“The act of vandalism against Ai Weiwei’s work Porcelain Cube is even more shocking when we consider that several of the works on display explore the theme of destruction itself,” exhibition curator Arturo Galansino told Hyperallergic. Interestingly, Who Am I? features an installation titled Left Right Studio Material (2018). The piece comprises a bed of shattered blue-and-white porcelain from the Chinese government’s destruction of Ai Weiwei’s Beijing studio earlier that same year.
