Ai Weiwei: Sewing a Button

Join us in the cinema for a live global simulcast as Ai Weiwei re-enacts his secret detention in his long-form performance work Sewing a Button.

Fifteen years ago, Ai Weiwei was secretly detained without any formal charges by Public Security in China. For 81 days, he lived in a single cell, eating his meals, washing and exercising between interrogations. Now Ai Weiwei presents Sewing a Button – a 24-hour live performance work re-enacting this brutal, life-changing experience.

Sewing a Button condenses the artist's detention into 24 hours, inviting audiences through day and night to bear witness to his experience. In a re-creation of his cell, he sleeps, eats, writes and washes – sometimes, he is interrogated.

The internationally renowned artist, activist and champion of free expression has revisited this period before in works such as S.A.C.R.E.D (2013), 81 (2013) and Dumbass (2013) – but Sewing a Button marks the first time his detention will be re-enacted live.

Unsettling and provocative, Sewing a Button exposes the fragility of personal freedoms in today’s uncertain world.

Presented with Factory International in Manchester as a companion piece to the landmark exhibition Button Up!, Sewing a Button.

Credits

Co-created by Ai Weiwei and Low Kee Hong

Performed by Ai Weiwei

Commissioned and produced by Factory International

Set Design by Hawkins\Brown

Costumes Ai Weiwei Studio