Chinese Artist Ai WeiWei On House Arrest, Shanghai

As Weiwei states in the video below, the Chinese government "cannot let anything happen if they don't understand it." Following his recent October opening at the Tate Modern, on November 5, 2010, Ai WeiWei, Chinese artist and activist, was placed under house arrest by the Chinese police. Weiwei said this house arrest was planned to prevent him from attending a party to mark the demolition of his newly built Shanghai studio, an order from the Chinese government. We learned on Artdaily, that just as he was finishing construction on his new studio, he received a notice from the government informing him that he would have to knock it down. In good activist fashion, Weiwei planned a party to commemorate and draw attention to this event. Watch the video below for a few words from Weiwei himself.