Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei says he's received German visa
He plans to visit the European nation where his son lives as soon as he can, but stamp is no guarantee he'll be allowed to leave China
PUBLISHED : Monday, 27 July, 2015, 11:08pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 28 July, 2015, 2:38am
Agence France-Presse in Beijing
Chinese artist Ai Weiwei posted the German visa on his Instagram account on Monday. Photo: SCMP Pictures Dissident artist Ai Weiwei has been given a visa to travel to Germany, he said on Monday, just days after police returned his passport that had been confiscated for four years.
China's best-known contemporary artist abroad, authorities denied Ai a passport after detaining him for 81 days in 2011, apparently attempting to limit his international influence.
Police returned the document last week and the bearded conceptualist - whose six-year-old son lives in Germany - said he had received the visa, without giving details.
Ai told The New York Times last week that he would travel to Germany "as soon as I get a visa". Friends posted pictures of the document online, showing that it was a multiple-entry visa valid for four years, starting last Friday.
Ai last week published a photograph of himself clutching a red Chinese passport online, with the words: "Today, I received a passport," later confirming to AFP that it was his.
It is not clear whether having a passport and visa means Ai will be able to enter and exit China freely. Many Chinese dissidents have been detained at airports while trying to leave the country, while some activists who have left the mainland have found themselves not allowed back.
The Royal Academy of Arts in London said it expected Ai would travel to Britain ahead of his exhibition opening there on September 19. Ai's non-attendance at the event would have generated negative headlines just weeks before President Xi Jinping is due to visit London.
The artist, who has released a heavy metal album and cites French artist Marcel Duchamp - seen as the father of conceptual art - as an inspiration, is known for his irreverent humour.
The burly son of a poet revered by China's first generation of Communist leaders, Ai helped design the "Bird's Nest" National Stadium for the 2008 Beijing Games, an event that brought the ruling party worldwide prestige.
But his outspoken criticism of national leaders - who he called "gangsters" - and involvement in controversial social campaigns made him a thorn in the government's side. Much of his work has been censored domestically
Ai was seized at Beijing Capital International Airport as he was about to board a flight to Hong Kong on April 3, 2011, allegedly for tax evasion. He was released three months later.
