The room closes by referencing the historical origin of an artistic sensitivity recognizable as the basis of many exhibited works. This concept is demonstrated in Untitled (After Seurat) by Ai Weiwei (Beijing, China, 1957), in which the artist reconstructs the renowned Un dimanche après-midi à l'Île de la Grande Jatte (1884-86) using LEGO bricks. Pointillism – a pictorial technique widespread in France during the 1870s – and all divisionist experiments can be considered the starting point of an "analytical" research line in modern art (in the words of Filiberto Menna) interested in the reduction of visual reality to its structural parts and informative data. In Seurat's painting, the point has the same role as the pixel in the digital composition of images. In Ai Weiwei's work, the colorful Lego brick simultaneously references the divisionist technique and the pixels in digital decomposition, developing the work in three dimensions. Furthermore, Ai Weiwei adds the presence of a castaway to the faithful reproduction of the original scene, immersed in bathers and people walking. This anachronistic and incongruous figure astonishes the viewer, opening a reflection on social and political topics dear to the artist and questioning the material and immaterial nature of what we are observing.
Ai Weiwei