‘Bang’ is Ai Weiwei’s contribution to this years Venice Art Biennale. Consisting of 886 traditionally handcrafted wooden stools ‘Bang’ seems like a huge ongrowing organism, like a cluster, caught in a room. In China every family typically had at least one of theese wooden stools that was passed on by every generation. But since the cultural revolution the wooden chair has almost vanished from everyday life and plastic and aluminium have superseded wood as the common material for furniture. The Curator of the german pavillon, Susanne Gaensheimer states: ‘The single stool as part of an encompassing sculptural structure may be read as a metaphor for the individual and its relation to an overarching and excessive system in a postmodern world developing at lightning speed’.
