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Ai Weiwei: Glass artistry

Ai Weiwei collaborates with Adriano Berengo to create an immense glass chandelier, in a project designed to 鈥渢alk about death in order to celebrate life鈥.

Glass: a functional material and silent witness to our daily lives, so unnoticed we鈥檙e usually looking straight through it. But in Venice, glass is an art form, and Ai Weiwei鈥檚 latest work is designed to make you look.

Having mastered many mediums 鈥 wood, marble, even social media - the artist-activist is now turning his hand to glass. Through a collaboration with Adriano Berengo, on the glass-making island of Murano, he鈥檚 creating an immense chandelier, made up of over 2000 glass bones, organs and other surprising objects. Set to be displayed at the Basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore, La Commedia Umana is Ai鈥檚 attempt to 鈥渢alk about death in order to celebrate life鈥.

Join Alice McKee in Venice, speaking with Ai Weiwei and the Berengo Studios team, as she follows the life cycle of La Commedia Umana, from the furnace to the church.

Available now

27 minutes

Last on

Sun 16 Oct 2022 01:32GMT

Broadcasts

  • Tue 11 Oct 2022 03:32GMT
  • Tue 11 Oct 2022 04:32GMT
  • Tue 11 Oct 2022 10:32GMT
  • Tue 11 Oct 2022 21:32GMT
  • Tue 11 Oct 2022 22:32GMT
  • Sun 16 Oct 2022 01:32GMT