With Milk ...find something Book - Ai Weiwei

WITH MILK: FIND SOMETHING EVERYBODY CAN USE

INTERVENTION IN THE MIES VAN DER ROHE PAVILION

“I approach Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion as a ready-made, the activities it experienced and the way it’s been seen. The building is not static; in fact, my intervention explores the metabolism of a living machine. Liquid is replaced because it is a part of the building that has always been replaced. In fact, the content of the two pools is replaced all the time, unnoticed to visitors. A pump re-circulates water in the large outdoor pool, while the smaller pool is drained every two weeks, the dark glass at the bottom is cleaned and the pool refilled.

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Ai Weiwei

SPECIFICATIONS

Author: Xavier Costa (Editor)

Pages: 36

Illustrations: Colour

Binding: Softcover

Publication date: 2010

ISBN: English 978-84-92861-46-0

"Regular work is done to ensure that the monument appears unchanged, timeless; not forgetting that the entire building stands as a perfect reconstruction. In milk and coffee intervention, the under layer of this monument surfaces and persists in consciousness; it refuses to be flushed away. Up keeping the condition of milk and coffee is the same as preserving a body, a demanding effort against light, air, warmth… anything encourages growth and change. What is vigor of geometry, clarity of assembly and enlightened optimism combined with ordinary everyday life? In its endeavor to correct mistakes of the past, Modernism might have made new mistakes. Today’s cultural attitude doesn’t mind mistakes; it sets out to move forward unafraid of making new ones.”

Ai Weiwei