China - Ai Weiwei's studio is demolished

A dissident artist’s studio is obliterated, may be reborn as a shopping mall

In Beijing workers obliterated the studio of Ai Weiwei, a Chinese artist and dissident. Mr Ai has been living in exile in Berlin since 2015, after years of skirmishes with authorities over his politically charged art and advocacy. The demolition came without warning, putting some artwork at risk, but was not necessarily a political act. The lease had expired, and the area is due for commercial development, including shopping malls. If the destruction of the studio were an installation, it might have been called “Progress”.