Ai Weiwei on Beijing: 'It's a prison for freedom of speech' - video

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was born in Beijing but spent the first 18 years of his life in exile with his family. He now lives and works in the capital, far from the centre but under constant surveillance. In the first of this new series of short films, he offers a unique insight into the artists’ community he helped build in Caochangdi – and reveals his playful techniques for carving out a space in ‘a city that doesn’t really belong to its residents’