groundbreaking events 100 years ago. and you can't get green. bicycles with friends. today is the 30th anniversary of the crackdown in beijing one of the most prominent critics of the chinese government since that time is the chinese artist ai wei wei who's lived here in germany since 2015 he creates works on a monumental scale and right now a museum is staging a monumental exhibition of his works. it's the biggest retrospective of ever seen in europe the new exhibition and dusseldorf shows his most important works of recent years. including $60000000.00 sunflower seeds out of porcelain each one handmade an individual but they all seem to dissolve into one mass an emblem for chinese society everything is art everything is politics is an exhibition that delivers on its name. in the last years i way way has gone from a dissident chinese artist to an international celebrity the cameras crowd in to get his picture but he counters with his own lens his own view when i moved to germany many expected him to become more critical of beijing but he also turned the criticism on europe fighting for more acceptance for refugees who come here if not only brings a new but use humor i speak to anybody who has no freedom of speech will be grateful if somebody else client to cave don't use those big. eyes 2017 film human flow followed stories of forced displacement and migration from afghanistan and iraq over the mediterranean to europe some see his efforts as heroic others accuse him of overstepping the bounds between art and activism. and also in the west this always saying art for our sake which i think it's a lie artists never are sick of artists always concerned about the human dignity and freedom of expression expression and the rights so those very. solid foundations arko artist become a superficial and a very decorative. in 2008 an earthquake in china's sichuan province left more than 70000 people dead including more than 5000 children i went away to travel there to see what the government wasn't saying he collected victims' names begin investigating the collapse of poorly built school buildings he collected mangled reinforcing bars and had them straightened back out. 164 tons of the steel bars are on display here laid out in boxes there resemble coffins a mixture of memorial and indictment. looks amazing i'm joined now by my colleague david levitt stated that. actually go him arrested well it does seem that that is what led up to his famous 2011 arrest where he disappeared for 81 days basically the chinese government wanted this earthquake tragedy to go away but i kept it in the public eye so to speak and he was taken into secret police custody that's the subject of this work which is also on display it's called secret and now he of course wasn't supposed to talk about his arrest at all oh but that is what brought him to the world's attention now he's also he's called himself a refugee and this long before he came to live in germany in 2015 what he always had a difficult relationship with beijing actually that goes back to his childhood his father was a renowned poet who was banished by chairman mao during the cultural revolution to the edge of the gobi desert and the family lived there and extreme poverty for a while they even lived in a hole in the ground for a time here is showing a picture of that hole on his cell phone so all that as a boy of course left him with very confused feelings about the chinese state now we're talking about this very way partly because of it's the 30th anniversary of the crackdown now how is it just now in china well china is still not a place where artists can make or exhibit whatever art they want but actually and actually things have been getting worse in the past few years rather than better looking back that period of time before and after tiananmen the eighty's the ninety's was a relatively good and free time for chinese artists and really since china hosted the olympics and since she didn't ping to power things have been getting a lot harder now at the same time art is big money even in china and there's some chinese art that's worth a lot of money. that is also actually. critical if you look between the lines like this work the last supper by saying funds you which sold for $23000000.00 if you look judas is actually wearing a western necktie then there's the movement called cynical real ism also very popular with collectors spearheaded by you amy journal and fung the journey is creepy smiles read by many as critical of chinese society of course these artists are painting tandem and square and if they arrest everything is all everything is politics is it. reads be there or here. thank you very much they relive it. it's the 100th of the fostering of the so-called constitution which crazy for the 1st time a democratic republic in this country after the commies are caged in $919.00 and it's the 100th anniversary of the founding of the bauhaus design school also invite to serve right the german national theatre of the world famous stuttgart ballet got together and 3 international choreographers have created new woakes inspired by the year of 04 or revolt that was 1919. to move is the starting point and every think revolvers around revolvers mean leanings. so the volume. can make a nice yes on the mechanisms of the revolution knobs. for example a snowball effect it's like the cosmos in chaos on the big east where there is a visionary someone who stands up and says i am the people i am the face of this revolution to spin this. from. the masses those remains facing us at 1st. the choreo. her fur is quite subtle in her forms of dance expression her attitude to the topic is support forceful. trends commonly shmuck you can't make it on without democracy or freedom if i can't express my opinion there is no art for me that's the crucial point and this piece is being staged not only gart but also in weimar where germany's 1st democratic constitution was signed into law a fence i think this is such a special moment exactly 100 years later to put this play on stage environment on the exact day that about last newseum was opened to. the 2nd coming out is from choreography cutter you know. and has a very special star a design classic the wagner felt powerhouse. in the beginning i so what's day achieved in bio house the stuff they built and then more and more i research it i think that they were interesting for me then i started getting into this creative process once they were the artist soul and then this was the moment and they said that's what's interesting for me the bauhaus from insight around this is how design looks from the inside in cozy our skills piece. so what was it like living and working at the bow house this is what interests our 3rd choreographer edward crew shows that those who started got a certain justice license as well as artistic freedom and he has made this freedom to experiment a basic principle in this work. it's a study on bands using the principles above so i do that in a way naturally because what am i doing. in the work in general. it's a process of redox are. sure to. present 3 new dance pieces about the awakening of modernity hundreds of years ago. more and more people are riding bikes to try and be eco friendly make their own small contribution to help save the planet from c o 2 emissions but of course making bikes isn't very eco friendly is it all that still has to be produced however to enterprising guys in northern germany are trying to rectify that by using bike frames out of bamboo mating gallina. keil in northern germany is a city of boats and bikes. but even here the 2 bikes ridden by maximillian shy and youngish don't stand out from the rest. their frames are made of bamboo. we were just used to it's people always ask does it hold up that many people knock on it of their homes close right and then they'll knock on it to see if it really is bamboo or just painted metal those are the top 2 reactions when people see these bikes. the 2 men discovered bamboo in 2012 as students today launched their my boo company their idea to help produce sustainable bikes in ghana and sell them in europe. the finishing touches are made in germany they say bamboo is ideal for bicycles almost also bamboo is a long grained grass unlike other materials normally used for bicycles but the long grain allows for a tougher exterior but low weight and very high flexibility. the men from keel work with the local project in ghana helping to set up a bicycle frame factory. bamboo is a commonly used material in the region it's ready for harvest in just 3 years. about 80 man hours go into making each frame more than 40 jobs were created the profits go to finance building a new school the bamboo bicycles by my blue cross from 15024500 euros many buyers who use them as alternatives to their cars. lives i know that bicycles have their price but once i realised i'd be supporting a social and sustainable product the bike was worth every cent to me. it's all over the it's a great compromise to say it's a step in the right direction but on our social commitment is 100 percent and ecologically ours are a cut above any other bicycle. bicycles made of natural materials. are both attractive and sustainable. and good on them of course they're very low to bamboozle a lot but since field daily dose of ops and culture a lot small on all these topics i and others of course on our website at v.w. dot com slash culture and on our facebook page as well as culture thanks very much for watching and join us again soon. the darkest day chinese history. 30 years ago. today. it was followed by a relentless crackdown on dissidents. only a few are safe with the help of foreign secret services. operation for. the lifeline a connection to. the river of spirits to protect him. along the canadian amazon. the river still runs its natural claims. the county's government has big plans to develop the region. to the flood of environmental indigenous peoples. who saw it. it's a double. kill that the volume or not hard and in the end this i mean you're not allowed to stay here anymore we will send you back. are you familiar with this. with the smugglers what alliances. what's your story. ready with numbers and women especially of victims of violence. take part and send us your story you are trying in all ways to understand this new culture. another visitor another guests you want to become a citizen. in so migrants your platform for reliable information. this is live from our land on the 30th anniversary of the tiananmen square massacre witnesses look back on not darkest day and the purge that followed. the crowd to what they expelled me from the party they liberated me my brain and my mouth are free today. we talk to the father and