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The Arts Intel Report

Ai Weiwei's La Commedia Umana: Memento Mori

Aug 27 – Nov 27, 2022
Piazza S. Francesco, 3, 48121 Ravenna RA

At six meters wide and nine meters tall, this hanging sculpture is the largest in history made of Murano glass. La Commedia Umana, designed by Ai Weiwei in collaboration with Berengo Studio, is the centerpiece of an exhibition that features the artist’s work in porcelain, wood, and LEGO. A bricolage of more than 2,000 hand-blown and fused black-glass vertebrae, ribcages, skulls, internal organs, and little birds, it looms like a ginormous goth chandelier without lights, a memento mori (remember you must die) to warm the heart of Hieronymus Bosch. Ai wants to remind us that we can, we must, leave more behind than bones. —Laura Jacobs