1000 Jahre Freud und Leid

One of the greatest artists of our time tells his life story against the backdrop of China's history. Ai Weiwei is among the most renowned artists of our era. In "1000 Years of Joy and Sorrow," he recounts for the first time his extraordinary artistic journey in the context of his family's history in China. As a boy, he witnessed the exile and humiliation of his father, Ai Qing, once a confidant of Mao and China's most influential poet, who was branded a "rightist" during the Cultural Revolution. These experiences shaped Ai Weiwei's work and his political beliefs. He describes the difficult decision to leave his family to study art in the United States, where he befriended figures like Allen Ginsberg and found artistic inspiration. He candidly shares his rise to stardom in the international art world, which increasingly drew the ire of the Chinese regime due to his human rights activism, culminating in his detention for several months in 2011. These deeply personal and richly illustrated memoirs not only provide a captivating insight into Ai Weiwei's life and work but also serve as a reminder to continually defend freedom of expression. Simultaneously, a German edition of poems by his father, Ai Qing, titled "Snow Falls on China's Earth," is being released.