How everything started

The exhibition “So Sorry” about and with Ai Weiwei was born 3 1/2 years ago, in January 2006, upon Ai Weiwei visiting the Haus der Kunst for the first time. Since then he has become a regular guest, attending for instance the opening of his Belgian friend and colleague painter Luc Tuymans with whom he is now co-curating an exhibition of Chinese contemporary art for the Bozar Museum in Brussels, opening October 16th. And not to forget: Weiwei was also present at the Haus der Kunst with architectural work in the exhibition “No 250″ of the architects Herzog & De Meuron, with whom he created Beijing’s Olympic Stadium, the “Bird’s Nest”. Ai Weiwei immediately “liked” our building – because of its “difficult” history and of course because of its “bigness”. His exhibition had accordingly to become “difficult” and “big” as well. When I visited his Fairytale compound in Kassel in 2007 he made me taste his delicious chicken soup and decided to cut my hair. And in Beijing he has often tailored for me – fit to size – “Chinese” blue jackets, worker’s style. That is how “So Sorry” began: the curator being a readymade as well.