There is no material that Ai Weiwei has not, over time, turned into a political message: steel, porcelain, marble, toy bricks, life jackets, everyday objects.

In Aftershock, the exhibition with which the Chinese artist returns to Italy — more precisely to MAXXI L’Aquila — these materials come together as an archive of shocks: fractures that often remain open, never fully resolved, crossing bodies, cities and memory.

Open from 29 April to 6 September 2026, the exhibition is curated by Tim Marlow, director and CEO of the Design Museum in London, and brings together around seventy works, some of them previously unseen, including installations, videos, photographs and sculptures.

The exhibition arrives in the year in which L’Aquila is the Italian Capital of Culture, occupying the spaces of Palazzo Ardinghelli, one of the most significant examples of restoration and adaptive reuse following the 2009 earthquake that struck the Abruzzo city.

At the centre of the exhibition is the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, a decisive event in Ai Weiwei’s practice, which creates an immediate bridge with the experience and memory of Italian visitors.

Not surprisingly, the dialogue with Palazzo Ardinghelli begins immediately, in the courtyard, where a veil from the Camouflage Nets series reworks camouflage patterns, allowing figures of cats — innocent victims of human conflicts — to emerge.

In the same space, the LED work Кому війна, кому мати рідна takes up a Ukrainian proverb and introduces the theme of war as an ambiguous, unequal experience, capable of altering the value of things.

The most powerful nucleus of the exhibition, however, is Straight, a pivotal work in Ai Weiwei’s practice, made from steel rods salvaged from schools that collapsed during the Sichuan earthquake.

As Marlow stated: "all of Ai Weiwei's work invites us to look at the world in different ways, through different objects and materials. Although it is rooted in the artist's personal experience, it has universal resonance: Ai Weiwei's relentless struggle for the right of individuals to express themselves freely and not be subject to the illegal dictates of authoritarian regimes stems from the difficulties he himself has faced, as well as his constant concern for those who are powerless to resist".