Ai Weiwei (August 28, 1957) is a Chinese activist and contemporary artist. He collaborated with the Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron as an artistic consultant on the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008 Olympic Games. As an activist, he has consistently criticized the Chinese government for its stance on democracy and human rights. He has also investigated government corruption and cover-ups in China, particularly the case of the collapse of schools in Sichuan following the 2008 earthquake. On April 3, 2011, he was detained at Beijing International Airport and was placed under arrest for 81 days without official charges. Since being allowed to leave China in 2015, he has lived in Berlin, Germany. He is famous for making powerful aesthetic statements that resonate with specific phenomena in today’s geopolitical world. From architecture to installations and from social media to documentaries, he uses a wide range of media as expressions of new ways for his audiences to examine society and its values.