Ai Weiwei says contrary to slogan, Lego is not awesome

By Virginia Werner, October 26, 2015

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It looks like Ai Weiwei won’t be severely damaging his feet on Lego bricks anytime soon. The popular Chinese contemporary artist has recently spoken out against toymaker company Lego after their refusal to complete an order of the popular building blocks for Ai's newest exhibition on political dissidents, reports the BBC.

Lego claims company policy forbids them to conduct business with anyone who wants to use Legos to make a political statement. Ai says that this is not their call. “Lego is giving us the definition of what is 'political', and all the big corporations are telling us what to love or hate,” he wrote on Twitter

The Lego fiasco coincides with a $300 million deal struck last week with the city of Shanghai and British theme park kingpins Merlin Entertainment to open a Legoland theme park in the city. Ai referred to the deal in an Instagram post on October 24, and has since received hundreds of comments from supporters asking him for an address to send Legos to.

Ai-Weiwei-Lego

Ai has used Lego products in the past for his exhibitions, which often comment on political events and Chinese society. At this rate, Lego might be the next subject of Ai’s upcoming exhibitions. 

SEE ALSO: UK restricts Ai Weiwei’s visa over ‘criminal record’


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