Quo Fuit places 8 dated presences for Ai Weiwei across 6 places, from 1978 to 2025.
Each one keeps the sentence it was taken from and a link to its source.
Ai Weiwei (IPA:; born 28 August 1957) is a Chinese contemporary artist, documentarian and activist.Wikipedia, full article · CC BY-SA
Every dot is a place Ai Weiwei is documented in, on a dated record. The interactive globe carries the full detail.
Where Ai Weiwei was documented, and when
1978year
Beijingattested“Weiwei notes this exile as "the whirlpool that swallowed up my father upended my life too, leaving a mark on me that I carry to this day." In 1978, Ai enrolled in the Beijing Film Academy and studied animation.”source: Wikipedia: Ai Weiwei
1981 to 1993period
The United Statesattested“From 1981 to 1993, he lived in the United States.”source: Wikipedia: Ai Weiwei
20 November 2009exact date
Beijingattested“Ai Weiwei and his assistant Gao Yuan, went from Beijing to interview Feng Zhenghu three times at Narita Airport, on 16 November, 20 November 2009 and 31 January 2010 and documented his stay in the airport passageway and the entire proces…”source: Wikipedia: Ai Weiwei
20 November 2009exact date
Narita Airportattested“Ai Weiwei and his assistant Gao Yuan, went from Beijing to interview Feng Zhenghu three times at Narita Airport, on 16 November, 20 November 2009 and 31 January 2010 and documented his stay in the airport passageway and the entire proces…”source: Wikipedia: Ai Weiwei
20 November 2009exact date
Chinaattested“Ai Weiwei and his assistant Gao Yuan, went from Beijing to interview Feng Zhenghu three times at Narita Airport, on 16 November, 20 November 2009 and 31 January 2010 and documented his stay in the airport passageway and the entire proces…”source: Wikipedia: Ai Weiwei
September 2019month
Cambridgeattested“In September 2019, he moved to live in Cambridge, England.”source: Wikipedia: Ai Weiwei
4 September 2022exact date
Albertinaattested“From 16 March until 4 September 2022, a retrospective on Ai Weiwei's work is on display at the Albertina in Vienna, Austria under the title "Ai Weiwei.”source: Wikipedia: Ai Weiwei
2025 to 2026period
Chinaattested“He briefly returned to China in late 2025-early 2026 to visit his mother, and did not encounter any persecution.”source: Wikipedia: Ai Weiwei
Open Quo Fuit to see these 8 presences on the
globe, filter them by date, and follow the journey year by year.
In each of these, a source puts Ai Weiwei and the place in the same dated sentence without stating
that Ai Weiwei was there. They are kept apart from the timeline above for exactly that reason:
a mention is not a presence, and Quo Fuit does not quietly promote one into the other.
1961year
Shihezimentioned“They were subsequently exiled to Shihezi, Xinjiang, in 1961, where they lived for 16 years.”source: Wikipedia: Ai Weiwei
1976year
Beijingmentioned“Upon Mao Zedong's death and the end of the Cultural Revolution, the family returned to Beijing in 1976.”source: Wikipedia: Ai Weiwei
1983year
Beijingmentioned“The group disbanded in 1983, yet Ai participated in regular Stars group shows, The Stars: Ten Years, 1989 (Hanart Gallery, Hong Kong and Taipei), and a retrospective exhibition in Beijing in 2007: Origin Point (Today Art Museum, Beijing).”source: Wikipedia: Ai Weiwei
1983 to 1993period
East Village, Manhattanmentioned“When he was living in the East Village (from 1983 to 1993), Ai carried a camera with him all the time and would take pictures of his surroundings wherever he was.”source: Wikipedia: Ai Weiwei
1993year
Chinamentioned“In 1993, Ai returned to China after his father became ill.”source: Wikipedia: Ai Weiwei
1999year
Caochangdimentioned“In 1999, Ai moved to Caochangdi, in the northeast of Beijing, and built a studio house—his first architectural project.”source: Wikipedia: Ai Weiwei
2001year
Chinamentioned“According to official statistics, in 2001 there were 850,000 AIDS sufferers in China, many of whom contracted the illness in the 1980s and 1990s as the result of a widespread plasma market operating in rural, impoverished areas and using…”source: Wikipedia: Ai Weiwei
2005year
Chinamentioned“In 2005, Ai was invited to start blogging by Sina Weibo, the biggest internet platform in China.”source: Wikipedia: Ai Weiwei
2006year
Upstate New Yorkmentioned“In 2006, Ai and HHF Architects designed a private residence in upstate New York for the investor Christopher Tsai.”source: Wikipedia: Ai Weiwei
2007year
Kasselmentioned“2007, video, 2h 32m Fairytale covers Ai Weiwei's project Fairytale, part of Europe's most innovative five-year art event Documenta 12 in Kassel, Germany in 2007.”source: Wikipedia: Ai Weiwei
2007year
Tianjinmentioned“It began near the end of 2007 in an interception organized by cat-saving volunteers in Tianjin, and the film locations included Tianjin, Shanghai, Rugao of Jiangsu, Chaoshan of Guangzhou, and Hebei Province.”source: Wikipedia: Ai Weiwei
2008year
Ordos Citymentioned“In 2008, Ai curated the architecture project Ordos 100 in Ordos City, Inner Mongolia.”source: Wikipedia: Ai Weiwei
12 May 2008exact date
Sichuanmentioned“Ten days after the 8.0-magnitude earthquake in Sichuan province on 12 May 2008, Ai led a team to survey and film the post-quake conditions in various disaster zones.”source: Wikipedia: Ai Weiwei
2009year
Tokyomentioned“"Ai Weiwei: According to What", adapted and expanded by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden from a 2009 exhibition at Tokyo's Mori Art Museum, was Ai's first North American museum retrospective.”source: Wikipedia: Ai Weiwei
Two people documented in the same place in the same year is a correlation, not a meeting.
Quo Fuit will never say they met without a source that says so.
How to read this page
Every line above is a dated fact taken from a source, with the sentence it came from and a link
back to it. Nothing is inferred, and a gap in the record is not evidence that someone was elsewhere.
A tag says how the fact is carried by its source: documented a structured,
explicitly dated record, attested a sentence that states the person was there,
mentioned a sentence that ties the person to the place without stating presence.
Sentences quoted from Wikipedia are available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Public domain books come from
Project Gutenberg. Quo Fuit claims no rights over these sources.
See Ai Weiwei on a 3D globe, filter the record by date, and cross this life with another to find
where the two overlap.