Who Kills Ai Weiwei | Francisco Masó

Dimensions Variable (DV) presents a solo project titled Who Kills Ai Weiwei by Cuban-born, Miami-based artist Francisco Masó. The exhibition opens on June 25 and runs through September 10, 2022 in the Main Gallery.

What happens when a dissident artwork is owned by the regime it criticizes? How do you avoid the use of your work as part of government political propaganda? Is it possible to legally frame the dynamics of reception, consumption, and circulation of your practice? Taking these questions as a point of departure, Masó reflects on the ethical sense of political art through the presentation of three recent projects: Aesthetic Register of Covert Forces (2017 – ongoing), Placing Political Art (2020-2021), and Time Specific Marked Paintings (2022).

Based on documentary photographs from online archives about scenes of repression in Cuba, both series Aesthetic Register of Covert Forces and Time Specific Marked Paintings generate a geometric archive of striped polo shirt patterns worn by the secret police. During the show, Placing Political Art is activated, allowing the audience to borrow an artwork presented in the exhibition for a period of 15 days.