Ai Weiwei

Yasser Murtaja, who worked with the artists, was shot dead by Israeli sniper fire while covering clashes at the Gaza-Israel border

Nightmarish automated children’s Youtube cartoons, Assassin’s Creed architecture and the Gay Right to the City: what to read this weekend

Japan’s growing number of art festivals tread a precarious path between state-sponsored leisure-culture and soft-power machinery

New Orleans Museum of Art acquires works from Souls Grown Deep Foundation; Ai Weiwei joins calls for the release of Liu Xiaobo; Lala Rukh has died

Colin Siyuan Chinnery considers the development of China’s non-profit sector and its relationship with the international art scene

The Antarctic Biennale suffers an early setback, while Peter Doig prevails in bizarre authentication case

To celebrate frieze’s quarter century, the editors choose 25 key artworks: one for each year of the magazine’s existence

A round-up of the best current shows in the Greek capital

The Smithsonian is set to collaborate with London's V&A Museum and Ai Weiwei signs to a talent agency

James Richards will represent Wales at Venice and Yuri Pattison wins the Frieze Artist Award

Galleria Continua & Tang Contemporary Art, Beijing, China

Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany

What sort of artist would Ai Weiwei have been without the Internet and its instruments of social media?

Art has a long history of engagement with politics. Does recent so-called socially engaged or political art really effect change?

With his current show at the Royal Academy (until 13 December), Ai Weiwei’s answers to the frieze ‘Questionnaire’, from Issue 134, October 2010

Lismore Castle Arts, Lismore, Ireland

Three Shadows Photography Art Centre, Beijing, China

Various venues, Liverpool, UK

What accounts for Ai Weiwei's unique position in the cultural make-up of contemporary China?