Factory International presents Ai Weiwei: Button Up! at Aviva Studios this summer, a major exhibition by the internationally renowned artist and activist. Monumental in scale and ambition, the site-specific exhibition explores the legacies of British imperialism, Chinese and British relations and the rise of globalisation.
“I’m not interested in making very big things just for the sake of it. But in Manchester, that wonderful Warehouse space calls for monumental work. Visiting the city for this exhibition – the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution – and reflecting on Britain’s global territorial expansion made me realise I had to explore that history and understand how it connects to the forces driving today’s wars and global crises. The world today is deeply divided, with tragedy all around. Understanding history goes hand in hand with standing up for truth and justice.”
Ai Weiwei
The exhibition will feature two new commissions created especially for the vast Warehouse space of Factory International’s home Aviva Studios, to be presented alongside existing work. Eight-Nation Alliance Flags is a monumental work made up of nearly half a million buttons. It centres on the history of the early 20th-century invasion of China by the Eight-Nation Alliance: Britain, France; United States of America, Germany, Japan, Russia, Italy, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The artist bought the buttons from A Brown & Co Buttons in Croydon when it was closing down in 2019. 30 tonnes of buttons were secretly sent to China, where they were used to create the eight flags by local craftspeople.
History of Bombs is a colossal new toy brick mural that features life-size models of conventional weapons and weapons of mass destruction. At 25 metres wide and 10 metres high, and featuring over a million toy bricks, it will be Ai Weiwei’s largest ever toy brick artwork. The work is a development of the History of Bombs (2019) installation that was first displayed at the Imperial War Museum, London in 2020. The artwork is being produced by volunteers in Manchester and craftspeople in China.
Taking inspiration from Manchester, a city at the heart of the Industrial Revolution, Ai Weiwei: Button Up! explores how historic systems of trade, empire and exploitation resonate in today’s humanitarian and political crises. Both global and personal, the title Button Up! is a playful poke at the artist’s ongoing battle with censorship. The exhibition incorporates a wide range of materials associated with both craft and industry, including antique timber, porcelain, cotton, glass and bronze. The artist will give a talk about the exhibition on 2nd July.
Ai Weiwei: Button Up!, 2nd July–6th September 2026 The Warehouse, Aviva Studios factoryinternational.org
Tickets from £15
Ai Weiwei: Artist Talk 2nd July 2026 The Hall, Aviva Studios Standard tickets from £25 Concessions and limited Aviva £10 tickets available factoryinternational.org
