Ai Weiwei (b. 1957, Beijing) is renowned for making strong aesthetic statements that resonate with timely phenomena across today's geopolitical world. From architecture to installations, social media to documentaries, Ai uses a wide range of mediums as expressions of new ways for his audiences to examine society and its values. Ai currently resides and works in Berlin, and is the recipient of the 2015 Ambassador of Conscience Award from Amnesty International and the 2012 Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent from the Human Rights Foundation. His most recent book is 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows: Two lives, one nation and a century of art under tyranny in China (2022).