Last year’s greatest deception!  Ai Wei Wei did exactly what was needed to create the perfect turbine hall commission. It was all there: interaction, democracy, public space, appropriation, scale… But it is the curators that did not perform well. One would expect a superstructure such as Tate to be well aware of health & safety issues. As a matter of fact they are. They had numerous issues around past commissions for this very same space as well as other exhibitions such as Cildo Meireles in 2008/2009.  Moreover, in the rather well edited film that accompanies the show, Ai Wei Wei is seen to clearly test the sunflower seeds in a smaller space. So why open the show to close it within a week because of the dust? Not good Tate! Not good at all!

Last year’s greatest deception! 

Ai Wei Wei did exactly what was needed to create the perfect turbine hall commission. It was all there: interaction, democracy, public space, appropriation, scale…

But it is the curators that did not perform well. One would expect a superstructure such as Tate to be well aware of health & safety issues. As a matter of fact they are. They had numerous issues around past commissions for this very same space as well as other exhibitions such as Cildo Meireles in 2008/2009. 

Moreover, in the rather well edited film that accompanies the show, Ai Wei Wei is seen to clearly test the sunflower seeds in a smaller space.

So why open the show to close it within a week because of the dust?

Not good Tate! Not good at all!