title: Ai Weiwei

text: In June 2012, the court heard the tax appeal case. Ai's wife, Lu Qing, the legal representative of the design company, attended the hearing. Lu was accompanied by several lawyers and an accountant, but the witnesses they had requested to testify, including Ai, were prevented from attending a court hearing. Ai asserts that the entire matter – including the 81 days he spent in jail in 2011 – is intended to suppress his provocations. Ai said he had no illusions as to how the case would turn out, as he believes the court will protect the government's own interests. On 20 June, hundreds of Ai's supporters gathered outside the Chaoyang District Court in Beijing despite a small army of police officers, some of whom videotaped the crowd and led several people away. On 20 July, Ai's tax appeal was rejected in court. The same day Ai's studio released "The Fake Case" which tracks the status and history of this case including a timeline and the release of official documents. On 27 September, the court upheld the tax evasion fine. Ai had previously deposited in a government-controlled account in order to appeal. Ai said he will not pay the remainder because he does not recognize the charge.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: In October 2012, authorities revoked the license of Beijing Fa Ke Cultural Development Ltd. for failing to re-register, an annual requirement by the administration. The company was not able to complete this procedure as its materials and stamps were confiscated by the government.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: On 26 April 2014, Ai's name was removed from a group show taking place at the Shanghai Power Station of Art. The exhibition was held to celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of the art prize created by Uli Sigg in 1998, with the purpose of promoting and developing Chinese contemporary art. Ai won the Lifetime Contribution Award in 2008 and was part of the jury during the first three editions of the prize. He was then invited to take part in the group show together with the other selected Chinese artists. Shortly before the exhibition's opening, some museum workers removed his name from the list of winners and jury members painted on a wall. Also, Ai's works "Sunflower Seeds" and "Stools" were removed from the show and kept in a museum office (see photo on Ai Weiwei's Instagram). Sigg declared that it was not his decision and that it was a decision of the Power Station of Art and the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Culture.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: In May 2014, the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, a non-profit art center situated in the 798 art district of Beijing, held a retrospective exhibition in honor of the late curator and scholar, Hans Van Dijk. Ai, a good friend of Hans and a fellow co-founder of the China Art Archives and Warehouse (CAAW), participated in the exhibition with three artworks. On the day of the opening, Ai realized his name was omitted from both Chinese and English versions of the exhibition's press release. Ai's assistants went to the art center and removed his works. It is Ai's belief that, in omitting his name, the museum altered the historical record of van Dijk's work with him. Ai started his own research about what actually happened, and between 23 and 25 May he interviewed the UCCA's director, Philip Tinari, the guest curator of the exhibition, Marianne Brouwer, and the UCCA chief, Xue Mei. He published the transcripts of the interviews on Instagram. In one of the interviews, the CEO of the UCCA, Xue Mei, admitted that, due to the sensitive time of the exhibition, Ai's name was taken out of the press releases on the day of the opening and it was supposed to be restored afterwards. This was to avoid problems with the Chinese authorities, who threatened to arrest her.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: Ai has long advocated for the release of Julian Assange. In 2016, he co-signed a letter which stated that the UK and Sweden were undermining the UN by ignoring the findings of a UN working group that found Assange was being arbitrarily detained. The letter called on the UK and Sweden to guarantee Assange's freedom of movement and provide compensation. Ai visited Assange in high security Belmarsh Prison after his arrest by the UK. In September 2019, Ai held a silent protest in support of Assange outside London's Old Bailey court where Assange's extradition hearing was being held. Ai called for Assange's freedom and said "He truly represents the very core value of why we are fighting, the freedom of the press".


title: Ai Weiwei

text: In 2021, Ai was invited to submit a piece for the virtual UK art exhibition "The Great Big Art Exhibition", which was organised by Firstsite. Ai's piece, called "Postcard for Political Prisoners", incorporated a photograph of the running machine used by Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy. After initially accepting Ai's idea, Firstsite's director said that it could not include his project "due to time constraints, and because it did not fit with the concept of the exhibition". Ai said he thought the reason for the rejection was that the exhibition did not "want to touch on a topic like Assange".


title: Ai Weiwei

text: Weiwei is often referred to as China's most famous artist. He has created works that focus on human rights abuses using video, photography, wallpaper, and porcelain.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: From 2003 to 2005, Ai Weiwei recorded the results of Beijing's developing urban infrastructure and its social conditions.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: Beginning under the Dabeiyao highway interchange, the vehicle from which Beijing 2003 was shot traveled every road within the Fourth Ring Road of Beijing and documented the road conditions. Approximately 2400 kilometers and 150 hours of footage later, it ended where it began under the Dabeiyao highway interchange. The documentation of these winding alleyways of the city center – now largely torn down for redevelopment – preserved a visual record of the city that is free of aesthetic judgment.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: Moving from east to west, Chang'an Boulevard traverses Beijing's most iconic avenue. Along the boulevard's 45-kilometer length, it recorded the changing densities of its far-flung suburbs, central business districts, and political core. At each 50-meter increment, the artist records a single frame for one minute. The work reveals the rhythm of Beijing as a capital city, its social structure, cityscape, socialist-planned economy, capitalist market, political power center, commercial buildings, and industrial units as pieces of a multi-layered urban collage.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: "Beijing: The Second Ring" and "Beijing: The Third Ring" capture two opposite views of traffic flow on every bridge of each Ring Road, the innermost arterial highways of Beijing. The artist records a single frame for one minute for each view on the bridge. "Beijing: The Second Ring" was entirely shot on cloudy days, while the segments for "Beijing: The Third Ring" were entirely shot on sunny days. The films document the historic aspects and modern development of a city with a population of nearly 11 million people.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: "Fairytale" covers Ai Weiwei's project Fairytale, part of Europe's most innovative five-year art event Documenta 12 in Kassel, Germany in 2007. Ai invited 1001 Chinese citizens of different ages and from various backgrounds to travel to Kassel, Germany to experience a fairytale of their own.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: The 152-minute long film documents the ideation and process of staging Fairytale and covering project preparations, participants' challenges, and travel to Germany.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: Along with this documentary, Fairytale was documented through written materials and photographs of participants and artifacts from the event.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: Fairytale was an act of social subversion, improving relationships between China and the West through interactions among participants and the citizens of Kassel. Ai Weiwei felt that he was able to make a positive influence on both participants of Fairytale and Kassel citizens.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: On 15 December 2008, a citizens' investigation began with the goal of seeking an explanation for the casualties of the Sichuan earthquake that happened on 12 May 2008. The investigation covered 14 counties and 74 townships within the disaster zone, and studied the conditions of 153 schools that were affected by the earthquake.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: By gathering and confirming comprehensive details about the students, such as their age, region, school, and grade, the group managed to affirm that there were 5,192 students who perished in the disaster.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: Among a hundred volunteers, 38 of them participated in fieldwork, with 25 of them being controlled by the Sichuan police for a total of 45 times.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: At 14:28 on 12 May 2008, an 8.0-magnitude earthquake happened in Sichuan, China. Over 5,000 students in primary and secondary schools perished in the earthquake, yet their names went unannounced. In reaction to the government's lack of transparency, a citizen's investigation was initiated to find out their names and details about their schools and families.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: As of 2 September 2009, there were 4,851 confirmed. This video is a tribute to these perished students and a memorial for innocent lives lost.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: In 2009, authorities in Shanghai prevented Feng Zhenghu, who was originally from Wenzhou, Zhejiang, from returning home a total of eight times that year. On 4 November 2009 Feng Zhenghu attempted to return home for the ninth time but instead Chinese police forcibly put him on a flight to Japan. Upon arrival at Narita Airport outside of Tokyo, Feng refused to enter Japan and decided to live in the Immigration Hall at Terminal 1, as an act of protest. He relied on gifts of food from tourists for sustenance and lived in a passageway in the Narita Airport for 92 days. He posted updates over Twitter which attracted international media coverage and concern from Chinese netizens and international communities.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: On 31 January, Feng announced an end to his protest at the Narita Airport. On 12 February Feng was allowed to re-enter China, where he reunited with his family at their home in Shanghai.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: Ai Weiwei and his assistant Gao Yuan, went from Beijing to interview Feng Zhenghu three times at Narita Airport, on 16 November, 20 November 2009 and 31 January 2010 and documented his stay in the airport passageway and the entire process of his return to China.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: Ai Weiwei studio production "Laoma Tihua" is a documentary of an incident during Tan Zuoren's trial on 12 August 2009. Tan Zuoren was charged with "inciting subversion of state power". Chengdu police detained witnessed during the trial of the civil rights advocate, which is an obstruction of justice and violence.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: Tan Zuoren was charged as a result of his research and questioning regarding the 5.12 Wenchuan students' casualties and the corruption resulting poor building construction. Tan Zuoren was sentenced to five years of prison.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: In June 2008, Yang Jia carried a knife, a hammer, a gas mask, pepper spray, gloves and Molotov cocktails to the Zhabei Public Security Branch Bureau and killed six police officers, injuring another police officer and a guard. He was arrested on the scene, and was subsequently charged with intentional homicide. In the following six months, while Yang Jia was detained and trials were held, his mother has mysteriously disappeared.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: This video is a documentary that traces the reasons and motivations behind the tragedy and investigates into a trial process filled with shady cover-ups and questionable decisions. The film provides a glimpse into the realities of a government-controlled judicial system and its impact on the citizens' lives.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: "The future dictionary definition of 'crackdown' will be: First cover one's head up firmly, and then beat him or her up violently". – @aiww


title: Ai Weiwei

text: In the summer of 2010, the Chinese government began a crackdown on dissent, and "Hua Hao Yue Yuan" documents the stories of Liu Dejun and Liu Shasha, whose activism and outspoken attitude led them to violent abuse from the authorities. On separate occasions, they were kidnapped, beaten and thrown into remote locations. The incidents attracted much concern over the Internet, as well as wide speculation and theories about what exactly happened. This documentary presents interviews of the two victims, witnesses and concerned netizens. In which it gathers various perspectives about the two beatings, and brings us closer to the brutal reality of China's "crackdown on crime".


title: Ai Weiwei

text: On 24 April 2010 at 00:51, Ai Weiwei (@aiww) started a Twitter campaign to commemorate students who perished in the earthquake in Sichuan on 12 May 2008. 3,444 friends from the Internet delivered voice recordings, the names of 5,205 perished were recited 12,140 times.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: "Remembrance" is an audio work dedicated to the young people who lost their lives in the Sichuan earthquake. It expresses thoughts for the passing of innocent lives and indignation for the cover-ups on truths about sub-standard architecture, which led to the large number of schools that collapsed during the earthquake.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: The shooting and editing of this video lasted nearly seven months at the Ai Weiwei studio. It began near the end of 2007 in an interception organized by cat-saving volunteers in Tianjin, and the film locations included Tianjin, Shanghai, Rugao of Jiangsu, Chaoshan of Guangzhou, and Hebei Province. The documentary depicts a complete picture of a chain in the cat-trading industry.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: Since the end of 2009 when the government began soliciting expert opinion for the Animal Protection Act, the focus of public debate has always been on whether one should be eating cats or not, or whether cat-eating is a Chinese tradition or not. There are even people who would go as far as to say that the call to stop eating cat meat is "imposing the will of the minority on the majority". Yet the "majority" does not understand the complete truth of cat-meat trading chains: cat theft, cat trafficking, killing cats, selling cats, and eating cats, all the various stages of the trade and how they are distributed across the country, in cities such as Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuxi, Rugao, Wuhan, Guangzhou, and Hebei.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: This documentary is about the construction project curated by Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei. One hundred architects from 27 countries were chosen to participate and design a 1000 square meter villa to be built in a new community in Inner Mongolia. The 100 villas would be designed to fit a master plan designed by Ai Weiwei. On 25 January 2008, the 100 architects gathered in Ordos for a first site visit. The film Ordos 100 documents the total of three site visits to Ordos, during which time the master plan and design of each villa was completed. As of 2016, the Ordos 100 project remains unrealized.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: As a sequel to Ai Weiwei's film "Lao Ma Ti Hua", the film "so sorry" (named after the artist's 2009 exhibition in Munich, Germany) shows the beginnings of the tension between Ai Weiwei and the Chinese Government. In "Lao Ma Ti Hua", Ai Weiwei travels to Chengdu, Sichuan to attend the trial of the civil rights advocate Tan Zuoren, as a witness. "So Sorry" shows the investigation led by Ai Weiwei studio to identify the students who died during the Sichuan earthquake as a result of corruption and poor building constructions leading to the confrontation between Ai Weiwei and the Chengdu police. After being beaten by the police, Ai Weiwei traveled to Munich, Germany to prepare his exhibition at the museum Haus der Kunst. The result of his beating led to intense headaches caused by a brain hemorrhage and was treated by emergency surgery. These events mark the beginning of Ai Weiwei's struggle and surveillance at the hands of the state police.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: This documentary investigates the death of popular Zhaiqiao village leader Qian Yunhui in the fishing village of Yueqing, Zhejiang province. When the local government confiscated marshlands in order to convert them into construction land, the villagers were deprived of the opportunity to cultivate these lands and be fully self-subsistent. Qian Yunhui, unafraid of speaking up for his villagers, travelled to Beijing several times to report this injustice to the central government. In order to silence him, he was detained by local government repeatedly. On 25 December 2010, Qian Yunhui was hit by a truck and died on the scene. News of the incident and photos of the scene quickly spread over the internet. The local government claimed that Qian Yunhui was the victim of an ordinary traffic accident. This film is an investigation conducted by Ai Weiwei studio into the circumstances of the incident and its connection to the land dispute case, mainly based on interviews of family members, villagers and officials. It is an attempt by Ai Weiwei to establish the facts and find out what really happened on 25 December 2010.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: During shooting and production, Ai Weiwei studio experienced significant obstruction and resistance from local government. The film crew was followed, sometimes physically stopped from shooting certain scenes and there were even attempts to buy off footage. All villagers interviewed for the purposes of this documentary have been interrogated or illegally detained by local government to some extent.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: Early in 2008, the district government of Jiading, Shanghai invited Ai Weiwei to build a studio in Malu Township, as a part of the local government's efforts in developing its cultural assets. By August 2010, the Ai Weiwei Shanghai Studio completed all of its construction work. In October 2010, the Shanghai government declared the Ai Weiwei Shanghai Studio an illegal construction, and it was subjected to demolition. On 7 November 2010, when Ai Weiwei was placed under house arrest by public security in Beijing, over 1,000 netizens attended the "River Crab Feast" at the Shanghai Studio. On 11 January 2011, the Shanghai city government forcibly demolished the Ai Weiwei Studio within a day, without any prior notice.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: This video tells the story of Liu Ximei, who at her birth in 1985 was given to relatives to be raised because she was born in violation of China's strict one-child policy. When she was ten years old, Liu was severely injured while working in the fields and lost large amounts of blood. While undergoing treatment at a local hospital, she was given a blood transfusion that was later revealed to be contaminated with HIV. Following this exposure to the virus, Liu contracted AIDS. According to official statistics, in 2001 there were 850,000 AIDS sufferers in China, many of whom contracted the illness in the 1980s and 1990s as the result of a widespread plasma market operating in rural, impoverished areas and using unsafe collection methods.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: "Ai Weiwei's Appeal ¥15,220,910.50" opens with Ai Weiwei's mother at the Venice Biennial in the summer of 2013 examining Ai's large "S.A.C.R.E.D." installation portraying his 81-day imprisonment. The documentary goes onto chronologically reconstruct the events that occurred from the time he was arrested at the Beijing airport in April 2011 to his final court appeal in September 2012. The film portrays the day-to-day activity surrounding Ai Weiwei, his family and his associates ranging from consistent visits by the authorities, interviews with reporters, support and donations from fans, and court dates. The Film premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam on 23 January 2014.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: This documentary on the Fukushima Art Project is about artist Ai Weiwei's investigation of the site as well as the project's installation process. In August 2014, Ai Weiwei was invited as one of the participating artists for the Fukushima Nuclear Zone by the Japanese art coalition Chim↑Pom, as part of the project "Don't Follow the Wind". Ai accepted the invitation and sent his assistant Ma Yan to the exclusion zone in Japan to investigate the site. The Fukushima Exclusion Zone is thus far located within the 20-kilometer radius of land area of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. 25,000 people have already been evacuated from the Exclusion Zone. Both water and electric circuits were cut off. Entrance restriction is expected to be relieved in the next thirty years, or even longer. The art project will also be open to public at that time. The three spots usable as exhibition spaces by the artists are all former residential houses, among which exhibition sites one and two were used for working and lodging; and exhibition site three was used as a community entertainment facility with an ostrich farm.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: Ai brought about two projects, "A Ray of Hope" and "Family Album" after analyzing materials and information generated from the site.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: In "A Ray of Hope", a solar photovoltaic system is built on exhibition site one, on the second level of the old warehouse. Integral LED lighting devices are used in the two rooms. The lights would turn on automatically from 7 to 10pm, and from 6 to 8am daily. This lighting system is the only light source in the Exclusion Zone after this project was installed.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: Photos of Ai and his studio staff at Caochangdi that make up project "Family Album" are displayed on exhibition site two and three, in the seven rooms where locals used to live. The twenty-two selected photos are divided in five categories according to types of events spanning eight years. Among these photos, six of them were taken from the site investigation at the 2008 Sichuan earthquake; two were taken during the time when he was illegally detained after pleading the Tan Zuoren case in Chengdu, China in August 2009; and three others taken during his surgical treatment for his head injury from being attacked in the head by police officers in Chengdu; five taken of him being followed by the police and his Beijing studio Fake Design under surveillance due to the studio tax case from 2011 to 2012; four are photos of Ai Weiwei and his family from year 2011 to year 2013; and the other two were taken earlier of him in his studio in Caochangdi (One taken in 2005 and the other in 2006).


title: Ai Weiwei

text: A feature documentary directed by Weiwei and co-produced by Andy Cohen about the global refugee crisis.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: A feature-length documentary directed by Weiwei about happenings in Wuhan, China during the COVID-19 pandemic. When discussing the film Weiwei claimed "it's obvious the disease is not from an animal. It's not a natural disease, it's something that's leaked out, after years of research."


title: Ai Weiwei

text: Ai's visual art includes sculptural installations, woodworking, video and photography. "Ai Weiwei: According to What", adapted and expanded by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden from a 2009 exhibition at Tokyo's Mori Art Museum, was Ai's first North American museum retrospective. It opened at the Hirshhorn in Washington, D.C. in 2013, and subsequently traveled to the Brooklyn Museum, New York,


title: Ai Weiwei

text: (1995) Performance in which Ai lets an ancient ceramic urn fall from his hands and smash to pieces on the ground. The performance was memorialized in a series of three photographic still frames.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: (2008) Sculpture resembling a park bench or tree trunk, but its cross-section is a map of China. It is four metres long and weighs 635 kilograms. It is made from wood salvaged from Qing Dynasty temples.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: (2008) Ming dynasty table cut in half and rejoined at a right angle to rest two feet on the wall and two on the floor. The reconstruction was completed using Chinese period specific joinery techniques.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: (2008–2012) 150 tons of twisted steel reinforcements recovered from the 2008 Sichuan earthquake building collapse sites were straightened out and displayed as an installation.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: (2010) In October 2010, at the Tate Modern in London, Ai displayed 100 million handmade and painted porcelain sunflower seeds. The work as installed was called "1-125,000,000" and subsequent installations have been titled "Sunflower Seeds". The initial installation had the seeds spread across the floor of the Turbine Hall in a thin 10 cm layer. The seeds weigh about 10 metric tonnes and were made by artisans over two and a half years by 1,600 Jingdezhen artisans in a city where porcelain had been made for over a thousand years. The sculpture refers to chairman Mao's rule and the Chinese Communist Party. The mass of tiny seeds represents that, together, the people of China can stand up and overthrow the Chinese Communist Party. The seeds also refer to China's current mass automated production, based on Western consumerist culture. The sculpture challenges the "Made in China" mantra, memorialising labour-intensive traditional methods of crafting objects.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: (2010) Ai WeiWei's marble sculpture resembles a Surveillance Camera to express the alarming rate of how technological advancements are being used in the modern world. WeiWei created this sculpture in response to the Chinese Government surveilling and incorporating listening devices in and around his studio, located in Beijing. The Chinese government did this as punishment for WeiWei's outspoken criticism of the Chinese Government.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: (2011) "Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads" are sculptures of zodiac animals inspired by the water clock-fountain at the Old Summer Palace.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: (2013) "Ye Haiyan's (叶海燕) Belongings" is a collaborative piece between Ai Weiwei and Ye Haiyan. Ye, also referred to as "Hooligan Sparrow", is an activist for women's rights and sex worker's rights. After consistent surveillance and harassment for her outspoken activism as chronicled in Nanfu Wang's documentary "Hooligan Sparrow", Haiyan and her daughter were met with multiple evictions in various cities and ultimately ended up on the side of the road with all of their belongings and no place to go. Ai Weiwei was able to help them financially and included this piece in his exhibition "According to What?". The display consists of four walls which display pictures of Haiyan, her daughter, and their life's belongings that they packed quickly prior to their first eviction. In the center, Ai recreated their belongings before they were confiscated. The whole arrangement demonstrates the realities of publicly speaking out against injustices in China.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: (1994) Han dynasty vases with the Coca-Cola logo brushed onto them is one of the artists' longest running series, begun in 1994 and continuing to the present day.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: (2014) Individual porcelain ornaments, each painted with characters for "free speech", which when set together form a map of China.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: (2014) Consisting of 176 2D-portraits in Lego which are set onto a large floor space, "Trace" was commissioned by the FOR-SITE Foundation, the United States National Park Service and the Golden Gate Park Conservancy. The original installation was at Alcatraz Prison in San Francisco Bay; the 176 portraits being of various political prisoners and prisoners of conscience. After seeing one million visitors during its one-year display at Alcatraz, the installation was moved and put on display at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C. (in a modified form; the pieces had to be arranged to fit the circular floor space). The display at the Hirshhorn ran from 28 June 2017 – 1 January 2018. The display also included two versions of his wallpaper work "The Animal That Looks Like a Llama but Is Really an Alpaca" and a video running on a loop.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: The 2019 documentary film "Yours Truly" covered the creation of "Trace" and an associated exhibit, "Yours Truly", also at Alcatraz, where visitors could write postcards to be sent to selected political prisoners.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: (2017) As the culmination of Ai's experiences visiting 40 refugee camps in 2016, "Law of the Journey" featured an all-black, inflatable boat carrying 258 faceless refugee figures. The art piece is currently on display at the National Gallery in Prague until 7 January 2018.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: (2017) Permanent exhibit, unique setting of two Iron Trees from now on frame the Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem, Israel where Dead Sea Scrolls are preserved.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: (2017) The exhibition was on the view in the Israel Museum until the end of October 2017. "Journey of Laziz" is a video installation, showing the mental breakdown and overall suffering of a tiger living in the "world's worst zoo" in Gaza.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: (2017) The exhibition at the Park Avenue Armory from 7 June- 6 August 2017, "Hansel and Gretel" was an installation exploring the theme of surveillance. The project, a collaboration of Ai Weiwei and architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, features surveillance cameras equipped with facial recognition software, near-infrared floor projections, tethered, autonomous drones and sonar beacons. A companion website includes a curatorial statement, artist biographies, a livestream of the installation and a timeline of surveillance technology from ancient to modern times.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: (2017) "The Animal That Looks Like a Llama but Is Really an Alpaca", and its companion piece "The Plain Version of The Animal That Looks Like a Llama but Is Really an Alpaca", is a wallpaper work consisting of intricate tiled patterns showing various pieces of surveillance equipment in whimsical arrangements. The two pieces were installed at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., as part of a full-floor exhibition of his work that also included a video and the 2014 installation "Trace".


title: Ai Weiwei

text: (2017) Ai Weiwei created the sculpture "man in a cube" for the exhibition "Luther and the Avantgarde" in Wittenberg to mark the 2017 quincentenary of the Reformation. In it, the artist worked through his experiences of anxiety and isolation following his arrest by Chinese authorities: "My work is physically a concrete block, which contains within it a single figure in solitude. That figure is the likeness of myself during my eighty-one days under secret detention in 2011." Concentrating on ideas and language helped Ai Weiwei endure his imprisonment. He was also intrigued by the connectedness of freedom, language and ideas in Martin Luther, to whom he explicitly paid tribute with man in a cube.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: Once the exhibition in Wittenberg closed, the Stiftung Lutherhaus Eisenach endeavored to make this exceptional manifestation of contemporary Reformation commemoration, "man in a cube", permanently accessible to a wide audience. Thanks to the generous support of numerous backers, the museum managed to acquire the sculpture in 2019. It was erected in the courtyard of the Lutherhaus and presented to the public in a ceremony the following year, the five hundredth anniversary of the publication of Martin Luther's treatise "On the Freedom of a Christian".


title: Ai Weiwei

text: "Forever Bicycles" is a sculpture made of many interconnected bicycles. The sculpture was installed as 1,300 bicycles in Austin, Texas, in 2017. The sculpture was moved to The Forks in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and reassembled as 1,254 bicycles in 2019.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: The sculpture's bicycles are made to resemble the Shanghai Forever Co. bicycles that were financially out of reach for the artist's family during his youth.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: A sculpture of many bicycles is displayed as public art in the gardens of the Artz Pedregal shopping mall in Mexico City since its opening in March 2018, and it is part of Fundación Arte Abierto's collection.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: A collaboration with conceptual artist Kevin Abosch primarily made up of two standard ERC-20 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain, called PRICELESS (PRCLS is its symbol). One of these tokens is forever unavailable to anyone, but the other is meant for distribution and is divisible up to 18 decimal places, meaning it can be given away one quintillionth at a time. A nominal amount of the distributable token was "burned" (put into digital wallets with the keys thrown away), and these wallet addresses were printed on paper and sold to art buyers in a series of 12 physical works. Each wallet address alphanumeric is a proxy for a shared moment between Abosch and Ai.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: A monstrous sculptures at Le Bon Marché in Paris to "speak to our inner child". Artist Ai Weiwei has used traditional Chinese kite-making techniques to create mythological characters and creatures for windows, atriums and the gallery at Paris department store Le Bon Marché (+ slideshow). Er Xi opened on 16 January 2016 until 20 February 2016 at Le Bon Marché Rive Gauche, located on Rue de Sèvres in Paris' 7th arrondissement.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: Ai Weiwei is also a notable architect known for his collaborations with Herzog & de Meuron and Wang Shu. In 2005, Ai was invited by Wang Shu as an external teacher of the Architecture Department of China Academy of Art.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: In 2006, Ai and HHF Architects designed a private residence in upstate New York. According to "The New York Times", the Tsai Residence is divided into four modules and the details are "extraordinarily refined". In 2009, the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design selected the home for its International Architecture Awards, one of the world's most prestigious global awards for new architecture, landscape architecture, interiors and urban planning. In 2010, "Wallpaper*" magazine nominated the residence for its Wallpaper Design Awards category: Best New Private House. A detached guesthouse, also designed by Ai and HHF Architects, was completed after the main house and, according to "New York Magazine", looks like a "floating boomerang of rusty Cor-Ten steel".


title: Ai Weiwei

text: In 2008, Ai curated the architecture project "Ordos 100" in Ordos City, Inner Mongolia. He invited 100 architects from 29 countries to participate in this project.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: Ai was commissioned as the artistic consultant for design, collaborating with the Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron, for the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008 Summer Olympics, also known as the "Bird's Nest". Although ignored by the Chinese media, he had voiced his anti-Olympics views. He later distanced himself from the project, saying, "I've already forgotten about it. I turn down all the demands to have photographs with it," saying it is part of a "pretend smile" of bad taste. In August 2007, he also accused those choreographing the Olympic opening ceremony, including Steven Spielberg and Zhang Yimou, of failing to live up to their responsibility as artists. Ai said "It's disgusting. I don't like anyone who shamelessly abuses their profession, who makes no moral judgment." In February 2008, Spielberg withdrew from his role as advisor to the 2008 Summer Olympics. When asked why he participated in the designing of the Bird's Nest in the first place, Ai replied "I did it because I love design."


title: Ai Weiwei

text: In summer 2012, Ai teamed again with Herzog & de Meuron on a "would-be archaeological site [as] a game of make-believe and fleeting memory" as the year's temporary Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in London's Kensington Gardens.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: This edition of Yang Lian's poems and Ai Weiwei's visual images was realized by the publishing house Damocle Edizioni – Venice in 200 numbered copies on Fabriano Paper. The book was printed in Venice, May 2018. Every book is hand signed by Yang Lian and Ai Weiwei.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: In December 2014 Ruya Foundation for Contemporary Culture in Iraq provided drawing materials to three refugee camps in Iraq: Camp Shariya, Camp Baharka and Mar Elia Camp. Ruya Foundation collected over 500 submissions. A number of these images were then selected by Ai Weiwei for a major publication, Traces of Survival: Drawings by Refugees in Iraq selected by Ai Weiwei, that was published to coincide with the Iraq Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: Released in November 2021, "1000 Years" is a memoir that documents the life of Ai Weiwei with a focus on his father, the renowned Chinese poet, Ai Qing. The book begins by documenting AI Weiwei's relationship with his father and the parallels between their lives and struggles before describing Ai's success as an artist and his constant struggle with the Chinese authorities over censorship and personal freedoms.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: On 24 October 2012, Ai went live with a cover of Gangnam Style, the famous K-pop phenomenon by South Korean rapper PSY, through the posting of a four-minute long parody video on YouTube. The video was an attempt to criticize the Chinese government's attempt to silence his activism and was quickly blocked by national authorities.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: On 22 May 2013, Ai debuted his first single "Dumbass" over the internet, with a music video shot by cinematographer Christopher Doyle. The video was a reconstruction of Ai's experience in prison, during his 81-day detention, and dives in and out of the prison's reality and the guarding soldiers' fantasies. He later released a second single, "Laoma Tihua", on 20 June 2013 along with a video on his experience of state surveillance, with footage compiled from his studio's documentaries. On 22 June 2013, the two-year anniversary of Ai's release, he released his first music album "The Divine Comedy." Later in August, he released a third music video for the song "Chaoyang Park", also included in the album.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: Ai is the Artistic Director of "China Art Archives & Warehouse" (CAAW), which he co-founded in 1997. This contemporary art archive and experimental gallery in Beijing concentrates on experimental art from the People's Republic of China, initiates and facilitates exhibitions and other forms of introductions inside and outside China. The building which houses it was designed by Ai in 2000.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: On 15 March 2010, Ai took part in "Digital Activism in China", a discussion hosted by The Paley Media Center in New York with Jack Dorsey (founder of Twitter) and Richard MacManus. Also in 2010 he served as jury member for Future Generation Art Prize, Kiev, Ukraine; contributed design for Comme de Garcons Aoyama Store, Tokyo, Japan; and participated in a talk with Nobel Prize winner Herta Müller at the International Culture festival in Cologne, Germany.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: In 2011, Ai sat on the jury of an international initiative to find a universal Logo for Human Rights. The winning design, combining the silhouette of a hand with that of a bird, was chosen from more than 15,300 suggestions from over 190 countries. The initiative's goal was to create an internationally recognized logo to support the global human rights movement.[98] In 2013, after the existence of the PRISM surveillance program was revealed, Ai said "Even though we know governments do all kinds of things I was shocked by the information about the US surveillance operation, Prism. To me, it's abusively using government powers to interfere in individuals' privacy. This is an important moment for international society to reconsider and protect individual rights."[99]


title: Ai Weiwei

text: In 2012, Ai interviewed a member of the 50 Cent Party, a group of "online commentators" (otherwise known as sockpuppets) covertly hired by the Chinese government to post "comments favourable towards party policies and [intending] to shape public opinion on internet message boards and forums". Keeping Ai's source anonymous, the transcript was published by the British magazine "New Statesman" on 17 October 2012, offering insights on the education, life, methods and tactics used by professional trolls serving pro-government interests.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: Ai designed the cover for 17 June 2013 issue of "Time" magazine. The cover story, by Hannah Beech, is "How China Sees the World". "Time" magazine called it "the most beautiful cover we've ever done in our history."


title: Ai Weiwei

text: In 2011, Ai served as co-director and curator of the 2011 Gwangju Design Biennale, and co-curator of the exhibition Shanshui at The Museum of Art Lucerne. Also in 2011, Ai spoke at TED (conference) and was a guest lecturer at Oslo School of Architecture and Design.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: In 2013, Ai became a Reporters Without Borders ambassador. He also gave a hundred pictures to the NGO in order to release a Photo book and a digital album, both sold in order to fund freedom of information projects.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: In 2014–2015, Ai explored human rights and freedom of expression through an exhibition of his art exclusively created for Alcatraz, a notorious federal penitentiary in San Francisco Bay. Ai's @Large exhibit raised questions and contradictions about human rights and the freedom of expression through his artwork at the island's layered legacy as a 19th-century military fortress.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: In February 2016, Ai WeiWei attached 14,000 bright orange life jackets to the columns of the Konzerthaus in Berlin. The life jackets had been discarded by refugees arriving on the shore on the Greek island of Lesbos. Later that year, he installed a different piece, also using discarded life jackets, at the pond at the Belvedere Palace in Vienna.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: In 2017, Wolfgang Tillmans, Anish Kapoor and Ai Weiwei are among the six artists that have designed covers for "ES Magazine" celebrating the "resilience of London" in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire and recent terror attacks.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: In September 2019, the newly expanded and renovated Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis opened with a major exhibition of work by Ai Weiwei: "Bare Life".


title: Ai Weiwei

text: A film by Ai Weiwei, "CIRCA 20:20", was screened on global network of billboard screens in London, Tokyo and Seoul in October 2020.


title: Ai Weiwei

text: From March 16 until September 4, 2022 a retrospective on Ai Weiwei's work is on display at the Albertina in Vienna, Austria under the title "Ai Weiwei. In Search of Humanity".


title: Dana Brooke

text: Ashley Mae Sebera (born November 29, 1988) is an American professional wrestler, bodybuilder, gymnast, fitness competitor, and model. She is signed to WWE, where she performs on the Raw brand under the ring name Dana Brooke and is a fifteen-time 24/7 Champion.


title: Dana Brooke

text: In July 2013, Sebera signed a contract with WWE and was assigned to WWE Performance Center and developmental brand NXT in Orlando, Florida. After allying herself with Emma before being promoted on the WWE's main roster in 2016, where she began allying herself with Charlotte Flair and then with "Titus Worldwide" alongside Apollo Crews and Titus O'Neil. Brooke began appearing more frequently following her move to "SmackDown" in 2019, and where she was placed in a program alongside Lacey Evans, feuding with Bayley and Sasha Banks.


title: Dana Brooke

text: That same year Brooke also re-signed with the WWE for an additional five years. In 2020, Brooke returned to the "Raw" brand, where she formed a tag-team with Mandy Rose until Rose was sent back to NXT.


title: Dana Brooke

text: Ashley Mae Sebera was born on November 29, 1988, in the Cleveland suburb of Seven Hills, Ohio. Sebera started working as a diver and started gymnastics.


title: Dana Brooke

text: After working as an athlete for over 18 years, she quit doing gymnastics after severely injuring her ankles and transitioned to bodybuilding and fitness competition. In early 2011, Sebera graduated from Kent State University (KSU), earning a major degree of fashion, merchandising and design, and a minor degree of business administration. She used her fashion qualification to open her own boutique.


title: Dana Brooke

text: Sebera has held several championships in the National Physique Committee (NPC) in mid-2011, and she has earned a pro card at the International Federation of BodyBuilding & Fitness (IFBB) in 2012. Sebera has competed at the Arnold Classic on multiple occasions, including her finishing on the twelfth in 2013, finishing on the thirteenth in 2015, and finishing on the fourteenth in 2016.


title: Dana Brooke

text: Sebera signed a contract with WWE in July 2013, and was assigned to WWE Performance Center and developmental brand NXT in Orlando, Florida, where she adopted her ring name Dana Brooke. At , Brooke made her first appearance for the brand in a backstage segment with Tyler Breeze. A week later, Brooke made her professional wrestling in–ring debut, where she was teaming with Sasha Banks in a losing effort against Alexa Bliss and Bayley in a tag-team match at an NXT live event.


title: Dana Brooke

text: Brooke made her first televised in-ring debut on the April 15, 2015 episode of "NXT", defeating Blue Pants. Brooke was given the entrance theme music titled "Respectful" by CFO$. In the midst of this ongoing feud between Bayley and Emma, Brooke defeated Bayley with a help from Emma on the April 29 episode of "NXT", prompting Brooke to formed this alliance with Emma. At , Brooke and Emma lost to Bayley and Charlotte after Charlotte pinned Emma. Brooke competed in a fatal–four way match on the August 22 taping of (aired on the August 26 episode of "NXT"), where Brooke lost after Emma picked up the victory by pinning Becky Lynch.


title: Dana Brooke

text: Since September 23 episode of "NXT", Brooke alongside Emma had been feuding with Asuka with Brooke losing to Asuka in Asuka's first singles match for the brand at , and Emma losing to Asuka at .


title: Dana Brooke

text: On the March 23, 2016 episode of "NXT", Brooke was in the corner for Emma, while Emma faced Asuka in their NXT TakeOver: London rematch and lost, and this would be Brooke's final appearance for the brand.


title: Dana Brooke

text: Brooke made her main roster debut on the May 9, 2016 episode of "Raw", where she assisted Emma to attack Lynch backstage and then three days later, on "SmackDown", Brooke defeated Lynch with a help from Emma in Brooke's first singles match on the main roster. Just a few days later, Brooke's association with Emma ended abruptly after Emma suffered a legit back injury during at the WWE's live event. At Extreme Rules on May 22, Brooke interfered in the Women's Championship match between Charlotte and Natalya, costing Natalya's chance to regain the title. The next night on "Raw", Brooke aligned herself with Charlotte, whom on this night has turned on her father Ric Flair.


title: Dana Brooke

text: Brooke and Charlotte began feuding with Banks. As part of the WWE draft on July 19, 2016, Brooke was drafted to "Raw"<ref name="SmackDown 19/07/16"></ref> The next night on "Raw" after Summerslam, Brooke and Charlotte began feuding with Bayley, but continued feuding with Banks. In October 2016, Brooke started her own feud with Bayley after the two had a backstage confrontation, whom she defeated by using the ropes for leverage on the October 17 episode of "Raw", until the rematch between the two features Brooke losing to Bayley at Hell in a Cell on October 30.


title: Dana Brooke

text: On the March 13, 2017 episode of "Raw", Brooke lost to Banks and then was being berated by multiple insults by Charlotte, Brooke turned face for the first time in her career when she attacked Flair and ended her association with her. However, a week later, Brooke lost to Flair. Brooke's feud with Charlotte ended after Charlotte was drafted to "SmackDown" during the 2017's Superstar Shake-up.<ref name="Raw 26/06/17"></ref>


title: Dana Brooke

text: Towards the end of 2017, Brooke aligned herself with the faction, called "Titus Worldwide" alongside Apollo Crews and Titus O'Neil. At 2018's Royal Rumble pay-per view, Brooke competed in the first ever 30–women Royal Rumble match, entering at number 8 and eliminating NXT's Kairi Sane, only to be eliminated by Torrie Wilson, lasting over 2:59. At WrestleMania 34's kickoff show, Brooke made her WrestleMania debut, where she competed in the inaugural WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal and was eliminated by Mandy Rose. On the September 3 episode of "Raw", Brooke was teaming with Ember Moon to take on against Banks and Bayley in a tag-team match, and she and her partner lost when a distraction from Crews and O'Neil causes Brooke to get pinned by Banks, in which led to Brooke ending her association with Crews and O'Neil.


title: Dana Brooke

text: After disbanding with the faction in the early September, Brooke has been a bit of a losing streak before taking part at the first-ever all women's pay–per–view, called Evolution, where she competed in the battle royal for a future women's championship match, where she lost after being eliminated by Moon. At 2019's Royal Rumble pay-per view, Brooke competed in the second women's Royal Rumble match, where she entered at number 22 and lasted 7:17, but was eliminated by NXT UK's Rhea Ripley. On the March 11 episode of "Raw", Brooke confronted the "Raw" Women's Champion Ronda Rousey for disrespecting wrestling and challenging her to a title match until Rousey accepts by attacking Brooke. The following week on "Raw", Brooke lost to Rousey in over a few seconds, who the latter successfully retained her "Raw" Women's title. Brooke talked about that the promo with Rousey was a Paul Heyman-inspired shoot promo that enabled her to express her actual frustrations and her true feelings.


title: Dana Brooke

text: At WrestleMania 35's kickoff show, Brooke competed the second WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal, where despite scoring two eliminations, Brooke was being eliminated by Sonya Deville. After defeating Tamina and Ruby Riott on "Main Event" in mid-April, during "A Moment of Bliss" on the April 29 episode of "Raw", Bliss announced Brooke as one of the participants for the women's Money in the Bank ladder match but at 2019's Money in the Bank pay-per view, she was unsuccessful at winning the women's MITB ladder match.


title: Dana Brooke

text: Brooke began feuding with Sarah Logan on "Main Event", where the two traded wins with one another. Their feud involved an incident where Brooke was injured via cut on her head in their match on June 18, 2019.


title: Dana Brooke

text: On October 16, Brooke was drafted to "SmackDown" as part of the 2019's WWE draft. In line with Brooke's move to the brand, she began receiving more television time and showcased her improved skill and move-sets. On the November 8 episode of "SmackDown", Brooke and Carmella defeated Rose and Deville to qualify as part of Team SmackDown at Survivor Series. At 2019's Survivor Series pay-per view, Team SmackDown lost to Team NXT.


title: Dana Brooke

text: In December 2019, Brooke revealed that she had signed a five-year multi-deal to remain with WWE. On the December 20 episode of "SmackDown", Brooke had a match against Bayley and was defeated again via pin-fall. After the match, Banks joined Bayley in the ring to intimidate Brooke, but Lacey Evans soon rushed to her assistance. On the December 27 episode of "SmackDown", Brooke and Evans teamed up against Bayley and Banks in a tag-team match. Banks won via submission, using her "Bank Statement" finisher on Brooke. On the January 3, 2020 episode of "SmackDown", Brooke and Evans faced Banks and Bayley again, participating in a triple threat tag-team match against Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross, with Brooke won via a pin-fall on Banks. Brooke was an entrant in the third women's Royal Rumble match at the 2020 pay-per-view.


title: Dana Brooke

text: On the March 6, 2020 episode of "SmackDown", Brooke teamed up with Carmella in another tag-team match, where the two lost to Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose. Brooke was scheduled to take part in the "SmackDown" Women's Championship match at WrestleMania 36, however, the match had to be changed with her being taken out of that match due to Brooke being quarantining as a precautionary measures during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. On the April 17 episode of "SmackDown", Brooke defeated Naomi to qualify for the women's Money in the Bank ladder match at the 2020 pay-per-view. On the April 24 episode of "SmackDown", Brooke teamed up with Carmella in a tag-team match for the Women's Tag Team Championship, but lost to the defenders Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross.


title: Dana Brooke

text: Brooke took part in the women's Money in the Bank ladder match. Brooke did not win but took part in several comedic segments. In the match she retrieved a briefcase leading her to believe she won. In another she slipped on a wet floor and hit her head. On May 15, Naomi challenged Brooke for a rematch and Brooke won by pin-fall.


title: Dana Brooke

text: Brooke was traded back to Raw on September 28, 2020, where she formed a tag-team with Mandy Rose. Together they defeated Natalya and Lana in their first tag-team match. On the November 2 episode of "Raw", Brooke and Rose challenged Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler for the Women's Tag Team Championship, but were unsuccessful.


title: Dana Brooke

text: On the November 16 episode of "Raw", Brooke and Rose partnered with Asuka once again, defeating the team of Jax, Baszler, and Lana. Rose received a legitimate injury, which resulted in Brooke and Rose being pulled from their upcoming involvement during the 2020 Survivor Series pay-per-view event. To remove Brooke from the event, writers worked an angle in which Brooke was attacked by Reckoning, leaving her unable to compete. On November 30, Brooke defeated Reckoning in singles competition. On December 7, Brooke partnered with Ricochet and defeated Slapjack and Reckoning. Brooke defeated Baszler via disqualification after Jax interfered in the match. Rose made her return from injury, saving Brooke and reuniting their alliance. The following week Brooke and Rose lost a tag-team match to Jax and Baszler. On December 28, Brooke was again defeated by Baszler. On January 4, 2021, Brooke challenged Baszler to a rematch after the latter attacked Rose. Brooke won the match-up via pin fall.


title: Dana Brooke

text: Brooke and Rose participated in the "Tag Team Turmoil" event at WrestleMania 37. On May 3, Charlotte defeated Brooke via submission. On May 10, Brooke, Rose and Asuka defeated Baszler, Jax and Charlotte in a tag team match. On May 31, Brooke and Rose defeated Naomi and Lana in a tag-team match. A feud with Tamina and Natalya resulted in Rose being defeated by the latter at Hell in a Cell. On the June 28 edition of Raw, Brooke and Rose teamed with Rhea Ripley but were defeated by Charlotte, Tamina and Natalya. WWE also debuted a new entrance theme for Brooke, titled "See You" which is performed by Def Rebel.


title: Dana Brooke

text: In October, Brooke entered the Queen's Crown tournament, where she lost to Shayna Baszler in the first round. On the November 22 episode of Raw, Brooke pinned Cedric Alexander to win the WWE 24/7 Championship, her first title in WWE. Brooke then took part in a 10-women tag team match as part of Liv Morgan and Becky Lynch's feud. Brooke was on Morgan's winning team.


title: Dana Brooke

text: On the December 8 Main Event show, Brooke defended the title against Tamina. On the December 28 edition of RAW, Brooke successfully defended the championship again. She partnered with Reggie in a mixed tag-team match defeating R-Truth and Tamina. The following week Brooke and Reggie defended the title again, this time against Tamina and Akira Tozawa. On the January 24 episode Raw, Brooke teamed with Rhea Ripley and Liv Morgan to defeat Nikki A.S.H., Tamina, and Carmella.


title: Dana Brooke

text: WWE continued to feature Brooke in comedic backstage videos involving Reggie, Tamina and Tozawa. On March 29, the story progressed with Brooke becoming engaged to Reggie. On the April 18 episode of "Raw", during a storylined double wedding ceremony, Brooke lost the 24/7 title after she was pinned by her partner, Reggie. Reggie lost the title to Tamina who also lost to Tozawa. Brooke then regained her title for a third time that same night. On May 2, Brooke lost the 24/7 title to Nikki A.S.H during a backstage attack. Brooke soon regained the title via pinfall in a 24/7 Championship match. Brooke also requested a divorce from Reggie, after he attempted to pin her. On May 31, Brooke lost the championship after she was pinned by Tamina. On June 6, Brooke regained the 24/7 Championship from Tozawa and successfully defended the belt against Becky Lynch with the help of interference from Asuka. On June 13, Brooke was scheduled for a championship rematch with Lynch, but the latter attacked Brooke before the match. On the June 20, 2022, taping of "WWE Main Event" (to be aired on June 24) in Lincoln, Nebraska, Brooke lost the WWE 24/7 Championship to Doudrop, who shortly was defeated by Nikki A.S.H. in which Brooke defeated Nikki A.S.H. to regain the championship title. Brooke missed the following WWE tapings after she was involved in a non-fatal car accident. Brooke lost and regained the 24/7 championship title on the July 18, 2022 edition of RAW. Brooke then lost and regained the championship at multiple house shows. As of October 30, 2022, Brooke is a fifteen-time 24/7 Champion. On November 7, following an 8-day reign, Brooke lost the 24/7 title to Nikki Cross. The championship was then retired the same day.


title: Dana Brooke

text: Brooke appeared in five WWE video games, starting with "WWE 2K17", and subsequently in "WWE 2K18", "WWE 2K19", "WWE 2K20", and "WWE 2K22", and was included as DLC in "WWE 2K Battlegrounds".


title: Dana Brooke

text: Two action figures of Brooke have been produced over the years. She has appeared in the 68th and 81st series of Mattel wrestling action figures. She has also been featured on numerous Topps branded collectible trading cards.


title: Dana Brooke

text: Sebera was in a relationship with fellow American bodybuilder Dallas McCarver until his death on August 22, 2017. From 2018 to 2019, she dated NBA professional basketball player Enes Kanter Freedom. She is now in a relationship with Cuban boxer Ulysses Diaz. In July 2021, Sebera and Diaz got engaged. In June 2022, Sebera was involved in a non-fatal car crash. The accident forced her to miss her wrestling commitments with WWE. She later revealed that the car accident was "bad" but she would recover quickly.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its purpose was to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe (and later, also in occupied Southeast Asia) against the Axis powers, and to aid local resistance movements.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: Few people were aware of SOE's existence. Those who were part of it or liaised with it were sometimes referred to as the "Baker Street Irregulars", after the location of its London headquarters. It was also known as "Churchill's Secret Army" or the "Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare". Its various branches, and sometimes the organisation as a whole, were concealed for security purposes behind names such as the "Joint Technical Board" or the "Inter-Service Research Bureau", or fictitious branches of the Air Ministry, Admiralty or War Office.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: SOE operated in all territories occupied or attacked by the Axis forces, except where demarcation lines were agreed upon with Britain's principal Allies (the United States and the Soviet Union). It also made use of neutral territory on occasion or made plans and preparations in case neutral countries were attacked by the Axis. The organisation directly employed or controlled more than 13,000 people, about 3,200 of whom were women.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: After the war, the organisation was officially dissolved on 15 January 1946. The official memorial to all those who served in the SOE during the Second World War was unveiled on 13 February 1996 on the wall of the west cloister of Westminster Abbey by Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. A further memorial to SOE's agents was unveiled in October 2009 on the Albert Embankment in London. The Valençay SOE Memorial honours 104 SOE agents who lost their lives while working in France. The Tempsford Memorial was unveiled on 3 December 2013 by Charles, Prince of Wales, in Church End, Tempsford in Bedfordshire, close to the site of former RAF Tempsford.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: The organisation was formed from the merger of three existing secret departments, which had been formed shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. Immediately after Germany annexed Austria (the "Anschluss") in March 1938, the Foreign Office created a propaganda organisation known as Department EH (after Electra House, its headquarters), run by Canadian newspaper magnate Sir Campbell Stuart. Later that month, the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, also known as MI6) formed a section known as Section D (the "D" apparently standing for "Destruction") under Major Lawrence Grand, to investigate the use of sabotage, propaganda, and other irregular means to weaken an enemy. In the autumn of the same year, the War Office expanded an existing research department known as GS (R) and appointed Major J. C. Holland as its head to conduct research into guerrilla warfare. GS (R) was renamed MI(R) in early 1939.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: These three departments worked with few resources until the outbreak of war. There was much overlap between their activities. Section D and EH duplicated much of each other's work. On the other hand, the heads of Section D and MI(R) knew each other and shared information. They agreed to a rough division of their activities; MI(R) researched irregular operations that could be undertaken by regular uniformed troops, while Section D dealt with truly undercover work.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: During the early months of the war, Section D was based first at St Ermin's Hotel in Westminster and then the Metropole Hotel near Trafalgar Square. The Section attempted unsuccessfully to sabotage deliveries of vital strategic materials to Germany from neutral countries by mining the Iron Gate on the River Danube. MI(R) meanwhile produced pamphlets and technical handbooks for guerrilla leaders. MI(R) was also involved in the formation of the Independent Companies, autonomous units intended to carry out sabotage and guerrilla operations behind enemy lines in the Norwegian Campaign, and the Auxiliary Units, stay-behind commando units based on the Home Guard which would act in the event of an Axis invasion of Britain, as seemed possible in the early years of the war.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: On 13 June 1940, at the instigation of newly appointed Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Lord Hankey (who held the Cabinet post of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster) persuaded Section D and MI(R) that their operations should be coordinated. On 1 July, a Cabinet level meeting arranged the formation of a single sabotage organisation. On 16 July, Hugh Dalton, the Minister of Economic Warfare, was appointed to take political responsibility for the new organisation, which was formally created on 22 July 1940. Dalton recorded in his diary that on that day the War Cabinet agreed to his new duties and that Churchill had told him, "And now go and set Europe ablaze." Dalton used the Irish Republican Army (IRA) during the Irish War of Independence as a model for the organisation.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: Sir Frank Nelson was nominated by SIS to be director of the new organisation, and a senior civil servant, Gladwyn Jebb, transferred from the Foreign Office to it, with the title of Chief Executive Officer. Campbell Stuart left the organisation, and the flamboyant Major Grand was returned to the regular army. At his own request, Major Holland also left to take up a regular appointment in the Royal Engineers. (Both Grand and Holland eventually attained the rank of major-general.) However, Holland's former deputy at MI(R), Brigadier Colin Gubbins, returned from command of the Auxiliary Units to be Director of Operations of SOE.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: One department of MI(R), MI R(C), which was involved in the development of weapons for irregular warfare, was not formally integrated into SOE but became an independent body codenamed MD1. Directed by Major (later Lieutenant Colonel) Millis Jefferis, it was located at The Firs in Whitchurch, Buckinghamshire and nicknamed "Churchill's Toyshop" from the Prime Minister's close interest in it and his enthusiastic support.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: The director of SOE was usually referred to by the initials "CD". Nelson, the first director to be appointed, was a former head of a trading firm in India, a back bench Conservative Member of Parliament and Consul in Basel, Switzerland, where he had also been engaged in undercover intelligence work.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: In February 1942 Dalton was removed as the political head of SOE (possibly because he was using the SOE's phone tapping facility to listen to conversations of fellow Labour ministers, or possibly because he was viewed as too “communistically inclined” and a threat to SIS). He became President of the Board of Trade and was replaced as Minister of Economic Warfare by Lord Selborne. Selborne in turn retired Nelson, who had suffered ill health as a result of his hard work, and appointed Sir Charles Hambro, head of Hambros Bank, to replace him. He also transferred Jebb back to the Foreign Office.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: Hambro had been a close friend of Churchill before the war and had won the Military Cross in the First World War. He retained several other interests, for example remaining chairman of Hambros and a director of the Great Western Railway. Some of his subordinates and associates expressed reservations that these interests distracted him from his duties as director. Selborne and Hambro nevertheless cooperated closely until August 1943, when they fell out over the question of whether SOE should remain a separate body or co-ordinate its operations with those of the British Army in several theatres of war. Hambro felt that any loss of autonomy would cause a number of problems for SOE in the future. At the same time, Hambro was found to have failed to pass on vital information to Selborne. He was dismissed as director, and became head of a raw materials purchasing commission in Washington, D.C., which was involved in the exchange of nuclear information.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: As part of the subsequent closer ties between the Imperial General Staff and SOE (although SOE had no representation on the Chiefs of Staff Committee), Hambro's replacement as director from September 1943 was Gubbins, who had been promoted to Major-general. Gubbins had wide experience of commando and clandestine operations and had played a major part in MI(R)'s and SOE's early operations. He also put into practice many of the lessons he learned from the IRA during the Irish War of Independence.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: The organisation of SOE continually evolved and changed during the war. Initially, it consisted of three broad departments: SO1 (formerly Department EH, which dealt with propaganda); SO2 (formerly Section D, operations); and SO3 (formerly MI R, research). SO3 was quickly overloaded with paperwork and was merged into SO2. In August 1941, following quarrels between the Ministry of Economic Warfare and the Ministry of Information over their relative responsibilities, SO1 was removed from SOE and became an independent organisation, the Political Warfare Executive.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: Thereafter, a single, broad "Operations" department controlled the Sections operating into enemy and sometimes neutral territory, and the selection and training of agents. Sections, usually referred to by code letters or groups of letters, were assigned to a single country. Some enemy-occupied countries had two or more sections assigned to deal with politically disparate resistance movements. (France had no less than six). For security purposes, each section had its own headquarters and training establishments. This strict compartmentalisation was so effective that in mid-1942 five governments in exile jointly suggested that a single sabotage organisation be created, and were startled to learn that SOE had been in existence for two years.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: Four departments and some smaller groups were controlled by the director of scientific research, Professor Dudley Maurice Newitt, and were concerned with the development or acquisition and production of special equipment. A few other sections were involved with finance, security, economic research and administration, although SOE had no central registry or filing system. When Gubbins was appointed director, he formalised some of the administrative practices which had grown in an "ad hoc" fashion and appointed an establishment officer to oversee the manpower and other requirements of the various departments.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: The main controlling body of SOE was its council, consisting of around fifteen heads of departments or sections. About half of the council were from the armed forces (although some were specialists who were only commissioned after the outbreak of war), the rest were various civil servants, lawyers, or business or industrial experts. Most of the members of the council, and the senior officers and functionaries of SOE generally, were recruited by word of mouth among public school alumni and Oxbridge graduates, although this did not notably affect SOE's political complexion.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: Several subsidiary SOE headquarters and stations were set up to manage operations which were too distant for London to control directly. SOE's operations in the Middle East and Balkans were controlled from a headquarters in Cairo, which was notorious for poor security, infighting and conflicts with other agencies. It finally became known in April 1944 as Special Operations (Mediterranean), or SO(M). Shortly after the Allied landings in North Africa, a station codenamed ""Massingham"" was established near Algiers in late 1942, which operated into Southern France. Following the Allied invasion of Italy, personnel from "Massingham" established forward stations in Brindisi and near Naples. A subsidiary headquarters initially known as "Force 133" was later set up in Bari in Southern Italy, under the Cairo headquarters, to control operations in the Balkans and Northern Italy.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: An SOE station, which was first called the "India Mission", and was subsequently known as "GS I(k)" was set up in India late in 1940. It subsequently moved to Ceylon so as to be closer to the headquarters of the Allied South East Asia Command and became known as Force 136. A "Singapore Mission" was set up at the same time as the India Mission but was unable to overcome official opposition to its attempts to form resistance movements in Malaya before the Japanese overran Singapore. Force 136 took over its surviving staff and operations.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: New York City also had a branch office, formally titled British Security Coordination, and headed by the Canadian businessman Sir William Stephenson. This office, located at Room 3603, 630 Fifth Avenue, Rockefeller Center, coordinated the work of SOE, SIS and MI5 with the American FBI and Office of Strategic Services.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: As with its leadership and organisation, the aims and objectives of SOE changed throughout the war, although they revolved around sabotaging and subverting the Axis war machines through indirect methods. SOE occasionally carried out operations with direct military objectives, such as Operation Harling, originally designed to cut one of the Axis supply lines to their troops fighting in North Africa. They also carried out some high-profile operations aimed mainly at the morale both of the Axis and occupied nations, such as Operation Anthropoid, the assassination in Prague of Reinhard Heydrich. In general also, SOE's objectives were to foment mutual hatred between the population of Axis-occupied countries and the occupiers, and to force the Axis to expend manpower and resources on maintaining their control of subjugated populations.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: Dalton's early enthusiasm for fomenting widespread strikes, civil disobedience and nuisance sabotage in Axis-occupied areas had to be curbed. Thereafter, there were two main aims, often mutually incompatible; sabotage of the Axis war effort, and the creation of secret armies which would rise up to assist the liberation of their countries when Allied troops arrived or were about to do so. It was recognised that acts of sabotage would bring about reprisals and increased Axis security measures which would hamper the creation of underground armies. As the tide of war turned in the Allies' favour, these underground armies became more important.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: At the government level, SOE's relationships with the Foreign Office were often difficult. On several occasions, various governments in exile protested at operations taking place without their knowledge or approval, provoking Axis reprisals against civilian populations, or complained about SOE's support for movements opposed to the exiled governments. SOE's activities also threatened relationships with neutral countries. SOE nevertheless generally adhered to the rule, ""No bangs without Foreign Office approval.""


title: Special Operations Executive

text: Early attempts at bureaucratic control of Jefferis's MIR(c) by the Ministry of Supply were eventually foiled by Churchill's intervention. Thereafter, the Ministry co-operated, though at arm's length, with Dudley Newitt's various supply and development departments. The Treasury were accommodating from the start and were often prepared to turn a blind eye to some of SOE's questionable activities.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: With other military headquarters and commands, SOE cooperated fairly well with Combined Operations Headquarters during the middle years of the war, usually on technical matters as SOE's equipment was readily adopted by commandos and other raiders. This support was lost when Vice Admiral Louis Mountbatten left Combined Operations, though by this time SOE had its own transport and had no need to rely on Combined Operations for resources. On the other hand, the Admiralty objected to SOE developing its own underwater vessels, and the duplication of effort this involved. The Royal Air Force, and in particular RAF Bomber Command under "Bomber" Harris were usually reluctant to allocate aircraft to SOE.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: Towards the end of the war, as Allied forces began to liberate territories occupied by the Axis and in which SOE had established resistance forces, SOE also liaised with and to some extent came under the control of the Allied theatre commands. Relationships with Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force in north-west Europe (whose commander was General Dwight D. Eisenhower) and South East Asia Command (whose commander was Admiral Louis Mountbatten, already well known to SOE) were generally excellent. However, there were difficulties with the Commanders in Chief in the Mediterranean, partly because of the complaints over impropriety at SOE's Cairo headquarters during 1941 and partly because both the supreme command in the Mediterranean and SOE's establishments were split in 1942 and 1943, leading to divisions of responsibility and authority.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: There was tension between SOE and SIS, which the Foreign Office controlled. Stewart Menzies, the chief of SIS, was aggrieved to lose control of Section D. Where SIS preferred placid conditions in which it could gather intelligence and work through influential persons or authorities, SOE was intended to create unrest and turbulence, and often backed anti-establishment organisations, such as the Communists, in several countries. At one stage, SIS actively hindered SOE's attempts to infiltrate agents into enemy-occupied France.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: Even before the United States joined the war, the head of the newly formed Office of the Coordinator of Information (COI), William J. Donovan, had received technical information from SOE and had arranged for some members of his organisation to undergo training at a camp run by SOE in Oshawa in Canada. In early 1942, Donovan's organisation became the Office of Strategic Services. SOE and OSS worked out respective areas of operation: OSS's exclusive sphere included China (including Manchuria), Korea and Australia, the Atlantic islands and Finland. SOE retained India, the Middle East and East Africa, and the Balkans. While the two services both worked in Western Europe, it was expected that SOE would be the leading partner.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: In the middle of the war, the relations between SOE and OSS were not often smooth. They established a joint headquarters in Algiers but the officers of the two organisations working there refused to share information with each other. In the Balkans, and Yugoslavia especially, SOE and OSS several times worked at cross-purposes, reflecting their governments' differing (and changing) attitudes to the Partisans and Chetniks. However, in 1944 SOE and OSS successfully pooled their personnel and resources to mount Operation Jedburgh, providing large scale support to the French Resistance following the Normandy landings.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: SOE had some nominal contact with the Soviet NKVD, but this was limited to a single liaison officer at each other's headquarters.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: After working from temporary offices in Central London, the headquarters of SOE was moved on 31 October 1940 into 64 Baker Street (hence the nickname ""the Baker Street Irregulars""). Ultimately, SOE occupied much of the western side of Baker Street. "Baker Street" became the euphemistic way of referring to SOE. The precise nature of the buildings remained concealed; it had no entry in the telephone directories, and correspondence to external bodies bore service addresses; MO1 (SP) (a War Office branch), NID(Q) (Admiralty), AI10 (Air Ministry), or other fictitious bodies or civilian companies.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: SOE maintained a large number of training, research and development or administrative centres. It was a joke that ""SOE"" stood for ""Stately 'omes of England"", after the large number of country houses and estates it requisitioned and used.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: The establishments connected with experimentation and production of equipment were mainly concentrated in and around Hertfordshire and were designated by roman numbers. The main weapons and devices research establishments were The Firs, the home of MD1, formerly MIR(C), near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire (although this was not formally part of SOE), and Station IX at The Frythe, a country house (and former private hotel) outside Welwyn Garden City where, under the cover name of ISRB (Inter Services Research Bureau), SOE developed radios, weapons, explosive devices and booby traps.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: Section D originally had a research station at Bletchley Park, which also held the Government Code and Cipher School, until in November 1940 it was decided that it was unwise to conduct codebreaking and explosives experiments on the same site. The establishment moved to Aston House near Stevenage in Hertfordshire and was renamed Station XII. It originally conducted research and development but from 1941 it became a production, storage and distribution centre for devices already developed.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: Station XV, at the Thatched Barn near Borehamwood, was devoted to camouflage, which usually meant equipping agents with authentic local clothing and personal effects. Various sub-stations in London were also involved in this task. Station XV and other camouflage sections also devised methods of hiding weapons, explosives or radios in innocuous-seeming items.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: Agents also needed identity papers, ration cards, currency and so on. Station XIV, at Briggens House near Roydon in Essex, was originally the home of STS38, a training facility for Polish saboteurs, ) who set up their own forgery section. As the work expanded, it became the central forgery department for SOE and the Poles eventually moved out on 1 April 1942. The technicians at Station XIV included a number of ex-convicts.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: The training establishments, and properties used by country sections, were designated by Arabic numbers and were widely distributed. The initial training centres of the SOE were at country houses such as Wanborough Manor, Guildford. Agents destined to serve in the field underwent commando training at Arisaig in Scotland, where they were taught armed and unarmed combat skills by William E. Fairbairn and Eric A. Sykes, former Inspectors in the Shanghai Municipal Police. Those who passed this course received parachute training by STS 51 and 51a situated near Altrincham, Cheshire with the assistance of No.1 Parachute Training School RAF, at RAF Ringway (which later became Manchester Airport). They then attended courses in security and Tradecraft at Group B schools around Beaulieu in Hampshire. Finally, depending on their intended role, they received specialist training in skills such as demolition techniques or Morse code telegraphy at various country houses in England.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: SOE's Cairo branch established a commando and parachute training school numbered STS 102 at Ramat David near Haifa. This school trained agents who joined SOE from among the armed forces stationed in the Middle East, and also members of the Special Air Service and Greek Sacred Squadron.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: A commando training centre similar to Arisaig and run by Fairbairn was later set up at Oshawa, for Canadian members of SOE and members of the newly created American organisation, the Office of Strategic Services.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: A variety of people from all classes and pre-war occupations served SOE in the field. The backgrounds of agents in F Section, for example, ranged from aristocrats such as Polish-born Countess Krystyna Skarbek, and Noor Inayat Khan, the daughter of an Indian Sufi leader, to working-class people such as Violette Szabo and Michael Trotobas, with some even reputedly from the criminal underworld. Some of them were recruited by word of mouth among the acquaintances of SOE's officers, others responded to routine trawls of the armed forces for people with unusual languages or other specialised skills.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: In most cases, the primary quality required of an agent was a deep knowledge of the country in which he or she was to operate, and especially its language, if the agent was to pass as a native of the country. Dual nationality was often a prized attribute. This was particularly so of France. In other cases, especially in the Balkans, a lesser degree of fluency was required as the resistance groups concerned were already in open rebellion and a clandestine existence was unnecessary. A flair for diplomacy combined with a taste for rough soldiering was more necessary. Some regular army officers proved adept as envoys, although others (such as the former diplomat Fitzroy Maclean or the classicist Christopher Woodhouse) were commissioned only during wartime.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: Several of SOE's agents were from the Jewish Parachutists of Mandate Palestine, many of whom were already Émigrés from Nazi or other oppressive or anti-semitic regimes in Europe. Thirty-two of them served as agents in the field, seven of whom were captured and executed.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: Exiled or escaped members of the armed forces of some occupied countries were obvious sources of agents. This was particularly true of Norway and the Netherlands. In other cases (such as Frenchmen owing loyalty to Charles de Gaulle and especially the Poles), the agents' first loyalty was to their leaders or governments in exile, and they treated SOE only as a means to an end. This could occasionally lead to mistrust and strained relations in Britain.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: The organisation was prepared to ignore almost any contemporary social convention in its fight against the Axis. It employed known homosexuals, people with criminal records (some of whom taught skills such as picking locks) or bad conduct records in the armed forces, Communists and anti-British nationalists. Some of these might have been considered a security risk, but no known case exists of an SOE agent wholeheartedly going over to the enemy. The Frenchman, Henri Déricourt, is widely regarded as a traitor, but he was exonerated by a war crimes court, and some have claimed he was acting under secret orders from SOE or MI6.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: SOE was also far ahead of contemporary attitudes in its use of women in armed combat. Although women were first considered only as couriers in the field or as wireless operators or administrative staff in Britain, those sent into the field were trained to use weapons and in unarmed combat. Most were commissioned into either the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY) or the Women's Auxiliary Air Force. Women often assumed leadership roles in the field. Pearl Witherington became the organiser (leader) of a highly successful resistance network in France. Early in the war, American Virginia Hall functioned as the unofficial nerve center of several SOE networks in Vichy France. Many women agents such as Odette Hallowes or Violette Szabo were decorated for bravery, posthumously in Szabo's case. Of SOE's 41 (or 39 in some estimates) female agents serving in Section F (France) sixteen did not survive with twelve killed or executed in Nazi concentration camps.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: Most of the resistance networks which SOE formed or liaised with were controlled by radio directly from Britain or one of SOE's subsidiary headquarters. All resistance circuits contained at least one wireless operator, and all drops or landings were arranged by radio, except for some early exploratory missions sent "blind" into enemy-occupied territory.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: At first, SOE's radio traffic went through the SIS-controlled radio station at Bletchley Park. From 1 June 1942 SOE used its own transmitting and receiving stations at Grendon Underwood in Buckinghamshire and Poundon nearby, as the location and topography were suitable. Teleprinters linked the radio stations with SOE's HQ in Baker Street. Operators in the Balkans worked to radio stations in Cairo.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: SOE was highly dependent upon the security of radio transmissions, involving three factors: the physical qualities and capabilities of the radio sets, the security of the transmission procedures and the provision of proper ciphers.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: SOE's first radios were supplied by SIS. They were large, clumsy and required large amounts of power. SOE acquired a few, much more suitable, sets from the Poles in exile, but eventually designed and manufactured their own, such as the Paraset, under the direction of Lieutenant Colonel F. W. Nicholls of the Royal Corps of Signals who had served with Gubbins between the wars. The A Mk III, with its batteries and accessories, weighed only , and could fit into a small attache case, although the B Mk II, otherwise known as the B2, which weighed , was required to work over ranges greater than about .


title: Special Operations Executive

text: Operating procedures were insecure at first. Operators were forced to transmit verbose messages on fixed frequencies and at fixed times and intervals. This allowed German direction finding teams time to triangulate their positions. After several operators were captured or killed, procedures were made more flexible and secure. The SOE wireless operators were also known as "The Pianists".


title: Special Operations Executive

text: As with their first radio sets, SOE's first ciphers were inherited from SIS. Leo Marks, SOE's chief cryptographer, was responsible for the development of better codes to replace the insecure poem codes. Eventually, SOE settled on single use ciphers, printed on silk. Unlike paper, which would be given away by rustling, silk would not be detected by a casual search if it was concealed in the lining of clothing.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: The BBC also played its part in communications with agents or groups in the field. During the war, it broadcast to almost all Axis-occupied countries, and was avidly listened to, even at risk of arrest. The BBC included various "personal messages" in its broadcasts, which could include lines of poetry or apparently nonsensical items. They could be used to announce the safe arrival of an agent or message in London for example, or could be instructions to carry out operations on a given date. These were used for example to mobilise the resistance groups in the hours before Operation Overlord.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: In the field, agents could sometimes make use of the postal services, though these were slow, not always reliable and letters were almost certain to be opened and read by the Axis security services. In training, agents were taught to use a variety of easily available substances to make invisible ink, though most of these could be detected by a cursory examination, or to hide coded messages in apparently innocent letters. The telephone services were even more certain to be intercepted and listened to by the enemy, and could be used only with great care.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: The most secure method of communication in the field was by courier. In the earlier part of the war, most women sent as agents in the field were employed as couriers, on the assumption that they would be less likely to be suspected of illicit activities.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: Although SOE used some suppressed weapons such as the De Lisle carbine and the Welrod (specifically developed for SOE at Station IX), it took the view that weapons issued to resisters should not require extensive training in their use, or need careful maintenance. The crude and cheap Sten was a favourite. For issue to large forces such as the Yugoslav Partisans, SOE used captured German or Italian weapons. These were available in large quantities after the Tunisian and Sicilian campaigns and the surrender of Italy, and the partisans could acquire ammunition for these weapons (and the Sten) from enemy sources.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: SOE also adhered to the principle that resistance fighters would be handicapped rather than helped by heavy equipment such as mortars or anti-tank guns. These were awkward to transport, almost impossible to conceal and required skilled and highly trained operators. Later in the war however, when resistance groups staged open rebellions against enemy occupation, some heavy weapons were dispatched, for example to the Maquis du Vercors. Weapons such as the British Army's standard Bren light machine gun were also supplied in such cases.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: Most SOE agents received training on captured enemy weapons before being sent into enemy-occupied territory. Ordinary SOE agents were also armed with handguns acquired abroad, such as, from 1941, a variety of US pistols, and a large quantity of the Spanish Llama .38 ACP in 1944. Such was SOE's demand for weapons, a consignment of 8,000 Ballester–Molina .45 calibre weapons was purchased from Argentina, apparently with the mediation of the US.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: SOE agents were issued with the Fairbairn–Sykes fighting knife also issued to Commandos. For specialised operations or use in extreme circumstances, SOE issued small fighting knives which could be concealed in the heel of a hard leather shoe or behind a coat lapel. Given the likely fate of agents captured by the Gestapo, SOE also disguised suicide pills as coat buttons.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: SOE developed a wide range of explosive devices for sabotage, such as limpet mines, shaped charges and time fuses, which were also widely used by commando units. Most of these devices were designed and produced at The Firs. The Time Pencil, invented by Commander A.J.G. Langley, the first commandant of Station XII at Aston was used to give a saboteur time to escape after setting a charge and was far simpler to carry and use than lighted fuses or electrical detonators. It relied on crushing an internal vial of acid which then corroded a retaining wire, which sometimes made it inaccurate in cold or hot conditions. Later the L-Delay, which instead allowed a lead retaining wire to "creep" until it broke and was less affected by the temperature, was introduced.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: SOE pioneered the use of plastic explosive. (The term "plastique" comes from plastic explosive packaged by SOE and originally destined for France but taken to the United States instead.) Plastic explosive could be shaped and cut to perform almost any demolition task. It was also inert and required a powerful detonator to cause it to explode, and was therefore safe to transport and store. It was used in everything from car bombs, to exploding rats designed to destroy coal-fired boilers.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: Other, more subtle sabotage methods included lubricants laced with grinding materials, intended for introduction into vehicle oil systems, railway wagon axle boxes, etc., incendiaries disguised as innocuous objects, explosive material concealed in coal piles to destroy locomotives, and land mines disguised as cow or elephant dung. On the other hand, some sabotage methods were extremely simple but effective, such as using sledgehammers to crack cast-iron mountings for machinery.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: Station IX developed several miniature submersible craft. The Welman submarine and "Sleeping Beauty" were offensive weapons, intended to place explosive charges on or adjacent to enemy vessels at anchor. The Welman was used once or twice in action, but without success. The Welfreighter was intended to deliver stores to beaches or inlets, but it too was unsuccessful.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: A sea trials unit was set up in West Wales at Goodwick, by Fishguard (station IXa) where these craft were tested. In late 1944 craft were dispatched to Australia to the Allied Intelligence Bureau (SRD), for tropical testing.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: SOE also revived some medieval devices, such as the caltrop, which could be used to burst the tyres of vehicles or injure foot soldiers and crossbows powered by multiple rubber bands to shoot incendiary bolts. There were two types, known as ""Big Joe"" and ""Lil Joe"" respectively. They had tubular alloy skeleton stocks and were designed to be collapsible for ease of concealment.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: An important section of SOE was Operational Research, which worked mostly from Station IX but also called on the facilities of Station XII and HQ. It operated through the User Trials Section and later the Air Supply Research Section and was formally established in August 1943. The section had the responsibility both for issuing formal requirements and specifications to the relevant development and production sections, and for testing prototypes of the devices under field conditions. It ensured that operational requirements were properly assessed, trials conducted, and quality monitored. Over the period from 1 November 1943 to 1 November 1944, the section tested 78 devices. Some of these were weapons such as the Sleeve gun or fuses or adhesion devices to be used in sabotage, others were utility objects such as waterproof containers for stores to be dropped by parachute, or night glasses (lightweight binoculars with plastic lenses). Of the devices tested, 47% were accepted for use with little or no modification, 31% were accepted only after considerable modification and the remaining 22% were rejected.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: Before SOE's research and development procedures were formalised in 1943, a variety of more or less useful devices were developed. Some of the more imaginative devices invented by SOE included exploding pens with enough explosive power to blast a hole in the bearer's body, or guns concealed in tobacco pipes, though there is no record of any of these being used in action. Station IX developed a miniature folding motorbike (the "Welbike") for use by parachutists, though this was noisy and conspicuous, used scarce petrol and was of little use on rough ground.


title: Special Operations Executive

text: The continent of Europe was largely closed to normal travel. Although it was possible in some cases to cross frontiers from neutral countries such as Spain or Sweden, it was slow and there were problems over violating these countries' neutrality. SOE had to rely largely on its own air or sea transport for movement of people, arms and equipment.