Zodiac ends with his departure from China, but the artist’s story continues between exile, memory, and reclaiming
The book Zodiac ends at the moment when Ai Weiwei leaves China, ten years ago. A forced and painful separation that marked not only the exile of an artist, but also a rupture from a country, a language, and a shared personal and collective memory. In recent days, after a decade of absence, Ai Weiwei has returned to China together with his son. A quiet yet immensely powerful return, carrying deep symbolic meaning.
Seeing the photographs of this return moved me profoundly. In those images are condensed years of absence, surveillance, and repression, but also resistance and dignity. Some of these photos can be seen here.
Zodiac was born precisely from this intertwining of life, history, and words. It is a book I illustrated based on the words of Ai Weiwei and the writing of Elettra Stamboulis: a dialogue between visual art and critical thought, between personal memory and the political dimension. Published in the United States by Ten Speed Press, Zodiac also had an Italian edition curated by Oblomov Edizioni.
Looking back at this book today, in light of Ai Weiwei’s return to China, means rereading it as an open, unfinished testimony. Not a closed narrative, but a trajectory that continues. Zodiac speaks of identity, cycles, destiny, and time, and this return—unexpected and charged with meaning—seems to fit precisely into that circular movement evoked by the book: leaving in order, perhaps, to one day return.
Zodiac
by Ai Weiwei, Gianluca Costantini and Elettra Stamboulis
In this beautifully illustrated and deeply philosophical graphic memoir, legendary artist Ai Weiwei explores the connection between artistic expression and intellectual freedom through the lens of the Chinese zodiac.
As a child living in exile during the Cultural Revolution, Ai Weiwei often found himself with nothing to read but government-approved comic books. Although they were restricted by the confines of political propaganda, Ai Weiwei was struck by the artists’ ability to express their thoughts on art and humanity through graphic storytelling. Now, decades later, Ai Weiwei and Italian comic artist Gianluca Costantini present Zodiac, Ai Weiwei’s first graphic memoir.
Inspired by the twelve signs of the Chinese zodiac and their associated human characteristics, Ai Weiwei masterfully interweaves ancient Chinese folklore with stories of his life, family, and career. The narrative shifts back and forth through the years—at once in the past, present, and future—mirroring memory and our relationship to time. As readers delve deeper into the beautifully illustrated pages of Zodiac, they will find not only a personal history of Ai Weiwei and an examination of the sociopolitical climate in which he makes his art, but a philosophical exploration of what it means to find oneself through art and freedom of expression.
Contemplative and political, Zodiac will inspire readers to return again and again to Ai Weiwei’s musings on the relationship between art, time, and our shared humanity. Continue
