Filming Ai Weiwei at the Design Museum : When the Plan Disappears
Some shoots are carefully structured. Others require you to adapt quickly and trust that the fundamentals of filmmaking will carry you through. Filming Ai Weiwei at the Design Museum was very much the latter.
The project was commissioned by Dezeen in partnership with the Design Museum to accompany Ai Weiwei’s exhibition Making Sense. The format was initially straightforward: a filmed conversation with the artist about the exhibition and its relationship to design.
Or so I thought.
A Changing Plan
As I was leaving the house on the morning of the shoot, I received a call explaining that the interview format had changed. What had originally been planned as an off-camera interview would now be a conversation between Ai Weiwei and the museum’s chief curator, Justin McGuirk.
That meant the setup needed to change immediately. I cancelled my taxi, repacked additional equipment, and adjusted the plan on the fly before heading across London to the museum.
Arriving at the Design Museum brought another small twist. I was told there was a chance the interview might not happen at all. Ai Weiwei, understandably, is not particularly fond of the promotional side of exhibitions, and there was some uncertainty about whether he would agree to sit down for the conversation.
So we set up quietly in a corner of the gallery, positioning the cameras where we could stay out of the way of the press photographers who were covering the exhibition opening. Then we waited.
Fifteen Minutes with Ai Weiwei
Eventually the artist arrived and agreed to the interview. There was no rehearsal or preparation with him beforehand. Once he sat down, we simply rolled cameras and let the conversation unfold.
Ai spoke with Justin McGuirk about the ideas behind Making Sense, explaining how design objects reflect the cultural and political conditions that shape our lives.
“I think it’s a very unique show in terms of the whole topic of design,” he said during the conversation. For Ai, the exhibition explored how humans define their lives through objects, linking design to memory, history and contemporary political questions.
The interview lasted around fifteen minutes. Then, just as suddenly as it had begun, Ai decided we were finished. And that was that.
Capturing the Exhibition
With the conversation complete, the rest of the project shifted to documenting the exhibition itself. Over the next two to three days I filmed the objects and installations that formed Making Sense, capturing the textures, materials and spatial relationships that defined the show.
This meant working slowly through the galleries, focusing on the details of the work and how the exhibition had been constructed within the museum space. The footage was later edited in-house to form the final film released by Dezeen.
Making It Work
Looking back, the shoot was a good reminder that filmmaking often involves adapting to circumstances you cannot control. Plans change, access shifts, and sometimes the subject simply decides when the conversation begins and ends.
In those situations the job becomes very simple: be ready, roll the cameras, and make the most of the moment you’re given.
Filming Ai Weiwei at the Design Museum was exactly that kind of moment.
If you’re producing an exhibition, design project or cultural programme and need a filmmaker who can document it with clarity and sensitivity, feel free to get in touch.
