艾未未參演的爭議短片《沙塵暴》將上映
Despite inflated budgets and egos, the art provocateur makes his film acting k back next week, when we will announce the official premiere date of the short film "The Sandstorm," starring Ai Weiwei.
儘管出現了預算超支和性格衝突問題，艾未未這位藝術破壞分子還是完成了他在電影中的首次亮相。下星期（本文最初發表於2014年8月23日——編注）我們會宣佈由艾未未參演的這部電影短片《沙塵暴》(The Sandstorm)的首映日期。In 2013, after more than six years as the head of video for TED Talks, Jason Wishnow went to Beijing for a break. During a visit with Ai Weiwei he asked the artist to appear in "The Sand Storm," a short film he had been developing. Drawn to Wishnow's idea of water as a metaphor for the flow of information, Ai agreed to play a water deliveryman in an arid world. They shot rogue near Ai's studio in the gritty district of Caochangdi, where a spike in Beijing's pollution index required the crew to wear face masks and gave the film its sickly brownish yellow tint.
2013年，六年來爲TED演講擔任影像總監的傑森·維什諾(Jason Wishnow)來北京度假。訪問艾未未時，他邀請這位藝術家在自己籌拍的短片《沙塵暴》中亮相。維什諾在片中把“水”作爲隱喻，象徵着信息的流動，艾未未受這個創意吸引，同意在片中扮演一個乾旱世界裏的送水工。他們在艾未未草場地工作室附近一處多砂的地方拍攝，當時北京污染指數飆升，劇組成員都要戴着面具，也令整部影片都呈現出病態的褐黃色調。
By the time Wishnow locked his edit, he was out of cash, so he launched an ill-fated Kickstarter campaign. Ai sent Wishnow a cease-and-desist letter, furious that his image and involvement had been exaggerated and "co-opted for promotional purposes." Kickstarter suspended the campaign, and Wishnow returned to Beijing hoping to make amends. In a widely reprinted — and ultimately successful — open apology, he wrote, "Creative endeavors with artistic titans should not be treated lightly." The rebooted campaign became the third-best-funded short film in the site's history, bringing in over $100,000.
維什諾剪完片子，預算也花光了，於是他在Kickstarter網站上發起了一次運命多舛的衆籌。艾未未看到自己在片中的形象，感到非常憤怒，覺得自己的參與被誇大了，被“利用爲宣傳目的”，於是給維什諾發去信函，要求他停止並終止電影的製作。Kickstarter網站中止了衆籌活動，維什諾回到北京，希望和艾未未修好。在一份被廣泛轉載的公開道歉書中，他寫道：“與藝術巨人合作的創作嘗試不應被輕率處理。”艾未未接受了道歉，衆籌重新啓動，在該網站電影短片類衆籌中，這個項目的籌款金額位居第三，最終籌到了10多萬美元。
Ai hasn't made any further comment. He doesn't say much more than that in the film, in which he mainly drives a tuk-tuk while wearing a costume that's part Mad Max, part Chinese laborer's uniform. But his presence is deeply felt in "The Sand Storm" just as it is in the international art world. Asked on set how he felt about his role, Ai answered with typical mischievousness: "In life, we all deliver something."
艾未未並沒就此事做出進一步評論。在片中他沒有什麼臺詞，主要是身穿一件半像“瘋狂馬克斯”(Mad Max)，半像中國工作服的衣服，蹬着一輛三輪車。但是他的出現在片中給人帶來深刻的感受，正如在互聯網藝術界一樣。被問到他對這個角色怎麼看時，艾未未用典型的惡作劇口吻回答：“在生活中，我們每個人都得投送點什麼。”
