Ai Weiwei Button Up!

Name: Ai Weiwei Button Up!
Start: 2026-09-06T16:00:00+00:00
End: 2026-09-06T17:00:00.000Z
Location: Factory International

Manchester

60m · Exhibition

History, power and empire collide in Button Up! – a major new exhibition from the world-leading artist and activist Ai Weiwei Monumental in scale and ambition, Ai Weiwei: Button Up! confronts 200 years of turbulent world history in this vast new exhibition, the artist’s most expansive in the North to date. Ai Weiwei is known around the world for his uncompromising artistic vision and political activism. From a brutal childhood in exile to surviving secret detention in China, his remarkable life and career have led him to global prominence. Using sculpture, installation, film, photography and architecture, his work is unafraid to ask urgent, critical questions. In Button Up!, the artist turns his lens on two centuries of Chinese and British relations. Inspired by visits to Manchester and the city’s pivotal role in the Industrial Revolution, the exhibition traces 200 years of power, trade and empire, exploring their legacy and connection to today’s global crises.

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Where to see it

Factory International

Water Street

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