Ai Weiwei (in the middle), speaking to Edward McMillan-Scott 
My smoking main course
Unfortunately, the exact nature of Ai Weiwei’s exhibit in the Turbine Room of the Tate Modern is a state secret – at the request of Unilever CEO Paul Polman – until the event opens on 12 October. But Elaine and I went to the launch this evening – and, as far as I’m concerned, it’s the most multi-dimensional, symbolic and interactive of the commissions we have been privileged to see.
Talked to, among others, Ai Weiwei, Paul Polman, Rupert Howes (of the Marine Stewardship Council) and Peter Madden (Forum for the Future), plus a number of other folk. I thanked Ai Weiwei for his extraordinary courage and enterprise in uncovering the number of dead young people after the Sichuan earthquake. Some of the details can be found here.
One of them, Edward McMillan-Scott, a VP at the European Parliament, commented on my surname, wondering whether I was related to Guy Elkington, who had lived in his village? Yes, I said, if he was the Guy Elkington who had had his testicles shot off in WWI. Ah, he said, he hadn’t known about that, but it would account for various things. Among other things, I suspect, the facts that he was consitutionally gumpy and lived with his sisters. I remember quite liking him. More anon on the Ai Weiwei story.
Leave a Reply