MASS MoCA in North Adams is taking part in a unique global art initiative driven by a controversial Chinese artist. WAMC’s Berkshire Bureau Chief Jim Levulis pieces it together.If you own a BMW — or any car, really — do you want your kids dumping LEGOs all over the seats, floors and dashboard? Probably not. But that’s what’s happening to a blue BMW parked outside the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams. The car came from Chinese artist Ai WeiWei, who is placing BMWs at a number of spots around the globe. The effort started after Ai tried to buy a bulk order of LEGOs for an upcoming piece of work. LEGO Group refused, saying it didn’t want to be involved in a project with a political agenda. Calling it censorship, the artist went to social media explaining what happened and fans responded, saying they would be willing to donate the pieces. The next step was figuring out how to collect them. MoCA’s director Joseph Thompson says the museum got a call from the artist’s studio asking if they were interested in being a collecting point.
“It’s very typical of his work,” Thompson said. “Deeply infused with social media. As much about politics as it is about art. Ironic. A little hard to sort out. On one hand this might seem to be some kind of criticism of a large corporation who refused to sell him, at deep discount, a material to make work that they deemed to be potentially political. On the other hand, he is using a BMW as the piggy bank as if to say that it’s maybe not about money.”
Ai has been critical of China’s stance on democracy and human rights, even being jailed for about 80 days in 2011. Thompson says MoCA’s involvement in the project came about in a matter of weeks and it’s already stirred up conversation at his own dinner table.
“It’s funny I was talking to my kids about this project and Trainer, who’s 17, said ‘I don’t get it. Ai WeiWei was really just looking for cheap LEGOs and isn’t it LEGO’s right to say sorry you have to buy your LEGOs through a retail store, you’re not a wholesale outlet. Wasn’t he just looking for cheap materials,’” Thompson recalled. “That led to a conversation about the signal he was sending by using a BMW. Trainer said ‘Well, yes if he can afford a BMW and not just one, but seven, eight or nine of them around the world it seems to me that he could afford to go into a retail store and buy the LEGOs that he needed for his work.’ That question, that complexity and the fact that he doesn’t treat a simple question in a simple way is right at the heart of this project. It’s not only about free speech, it’s also about free trade and what free trade really means. Many other questions are raised by this work.”
Thompson isn’t sure how long the car will be outside the museum, but if people have similar reactions to the ones Eric Kerns’ daughters had, it shouldn’t take too long.
“Think how many LEGOs are around the world in closets and attics,” Kerns said. “I got home and told them ‘Oh my gosh there’s an Ai WeiWei car at MASS MoCA.’ They were jamming up to the attic like ‘Let’s go! We’re ready!’”
To provide some perspective, a LEGO Super Star Destroyer that took about 60 Williams College students less than 10 minutes to build as reported on WAMC, had 3,152 pieces in one box.
“It’s an astonishing thing of being able to feel like you’re participating in something that’s global,” Kerns said. “You look at where the other sites are and it’s Berlin, London, Melbourne, Miami, New York City and North Adams. That in our little corner of the world here is pretty awesome.”
The LEGOs are expected to head to Melbourne, Australia for an exhibit.
