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My home is on my two legs…I have no sense of a homeland: Dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei

The internationally renowned artist speaks on making connections between India and himself and his iterations of modern Indian masters SH Raza and VS Gaitonde in Lego

4 min readUpdated: Feb 7, 2026 11:03 AM IST

Chinese Contemporary Artist Ai weiwei at Nature Morte Gallery, in New Delhi on Friday. (Express Photo by Praveen Khanna)

Sitting in a courtyard in Dhan Mill compound, where Nature Morte gallery is presenting his first solo exhibition in India, 68-year-old Ai Weiwei rejected the label of “artist-activist”.

“In the West, you have this idea of an activist, but I think anybody who is alive is an activist; some are conscious of it, others are not,” he said, the morning sun lighting up the creases on his face that appear to have been deepened by decades of confrontation with power.

“Today, you think an activist is someone making a political statement, which I think is not the right understanding,” Ai said. “Also, anyone who makes an image is not an artist…a real artist speaks of the mind, emotions, human dignity, our living conditions; questions authority – I think that is the challenge of being an artist.”

Defiance has shaped not just the art but also the life of one of China’s best recognised dissidents. Ai, who was born in Beijing in 1957, spent his childhood in exile in northwestern China after his father, the poet Ai Qing, was denounced under Mao. Ai himself came under scrutiny, surveillance, and censorship in the 1990s, as he persisted with his criticism of the authoritarian state.

In 2011, Ai, who was by then recognised as one of China’s leading avant garde artists, was detained for 81 days. He eventually got his passport back in 2015, and left China almost immediately. Ai has been a constant traveller since then, taking up addresses in Berlin, Cambridge, and now Montemor-o-Novo in Portugal.

At the India Art Fair, he entertained several requests for selfies — a way of documenting the self that he has previously embraced.
Planning the Delhi solo, he had wanted to forge a connection with Indian culture, adopting iterations of modernist masters S H Raza and V S Gaitonde’s works in Lego, a material he has been using for more than a decade. “The pixels have come out beautifully,” he reflected.

Ai acknowledged that his exposure to the stalwarts of Indian art is limited. But he is familiar with the writings of Rabindranath Tagore, whose works occupied his father’s bookshelves. In his mind, India has been the land of The Buddha, and a country with connections to China that are both geographical and cultural.

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“Right now, India as a society may be more democratic, but there is also a lot of disparity between the super-rich and those who are at the bottom of the ladder,” he said. “China is more even as a society, but it has a one-party system, which is a big difference.”

Of late Ai has been critical of the West, accusing it of its own forms of censorship. “Classically, the so-called West has pointed fingers at China or those with more authoritarian states, but I have been censored in the West very often. There is strong censorship in Western universities, in art, in writing, in media, in everything. No longer can fingers be pointed at China. If you are doing that, you are a hypocrite and have double standards,” he said.

Living between cities and continents, every place he visits is home to Ai. “My home is on my two legs. I travel anywhere, it’s home,” he said. “I have no sense of homeland.”

Vandana Kalra

Vandana Kalra is an art critic and Deputy Associate Editor with The Indian Express. She has spent more than two decades chronicling arts, culture and everyday life, with modern and contemporary art at the heart of her practice. With a sustained engagement in the arts and a deep understanding of India’s cultural ecosystem, she is regarded as a distinctive and authoritative voice in contemporary art journalism in India. Vandana Kalra's career has unfolded in step with the shifting contours of India’s cultural landscape, from the rise of the Indian art market to the growing prominence of global biennales and fairs. Closely tracking its ebbs and surges, she reports from studios, galleries, museums and exhibition spaces and has covered major Indian and international art fairs, museum exhibitions and biennales, including the Venice Biennale, Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Documenta, Islamic Arts Biennale. She has also been invited to cover landmark moments in modern Indian art, including SH Raza’s exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the opening of the MF Husain Museum in Doha, reflecting her long engagement with the legacies of India’s modern masters. Alongside her writing, she applies a keen editorial sensibility, shaping and editing art and cultural coverage into informed, cohesive narratives. Through incisive features, interviews and critical reviews, she brings clarity to complex artistic conversations, foregrounding questions of process, patronage, craft, identity and cultural memory. The Global Art Circuit: She provides extensive coverage of major events like the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Serendipity Arts Festival, and high-profile international auctions. Artist Spotlights: She writes in-depth features on modern masters (like M.F. Husain) and contemporary performance artists (like Marina Abramović). Art and Labor: A recurring theme in her writing is how art reflects the lives of the marginalized, including migrants, farmers, and labourers. Recent Notable Articles (Late 2025) Her recent portfolio is dominated by the coverage of the 2025 art season in India: 1. Kochi-Muziris Biennale & Serendipity Arts Festival "At Serendipity Arts Festival, a 'Shark Tank' of sorts for art and crafts startups" (Dec 20, 2025): On how a new incubator is helping artisans pitch products to investors. "Artist Birender Yadav's work gives voice to the migrant self" (Dec 17, 2025): A profile of an artist whose decade-long practice focuses on brick kiln workers. "At Kochi-Muziris Biennale, a farmer’s son from Patiala uses his art to draw attention to Delhi’s polluted air" (Dec 16, 2025). "Kochi Biennale showstopper Marina Abramović, a pioneer in performance art" (Dec 7, 2025): An interview with the world-renowned artist on the power of reinvention. 2. M.F. Husain & Modernism "Inside the new MF Husain Museum in Qatar" (Nov 29, 2025): A three-part series on the opening of Lawh Wa Qalam in Doha, exploring how a 2008 sketch became the architectural core of the museum. "Doha opens Lawh Wa Qalam: Celebrating the modernist's global legacy" (Nov 29, 2025). 3. Art Market & Records "Frida Kahlo sets record for the most expensive work by a female artist" (Nov 21, 2025): On Kahlo's canvas The Dream (The Bed) selling for $54.7 million. "All you need to know about Klimt’s canvas that is now the most expensive modern artwork" (Nov 19, 2025). "What’s special about a $12.1 million gold toilet?" (Nov 19, 2025): A quirky look at a flushable 18-karat gold artwork. 4. Art Education & History "Art as play: How process-driven activities are changing the way children learn art in India" (Nov 23, 2025). "A glimpse of Goa's layered history at Serendipity Arts Festival" (Dec 9, 2025): Exploring historical landmarks as venues for contemporary art. Signature Beats Vandana is known for her investigative approach to the art economy, having recently written about "Who funds the Kochi-Muziris Biennale?" (Dec 11, 2025), detailing the role of "Platinum Benefactors." She also explores the spiritual and geometric aspects of art, as seen in her retrospective on artist Akkitham Narayanan and the history of the Cholamandal Artists' Village (Nov 22, 2025). ... Read More

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