In just two days, London lights the torch for the 2012 Olympic Games, and brilliant athletes from around the globe will compete for glory!

Besides seeing the motto of the Olympics in action (“Citius, Altius, Fortius”, or ”higher, faster, stronger”), you can see a phenomenal array of art and culture installations in London’s Olympic Park, where the Games’ athletic events and ceremonies take place.

Through these permanent art commissions, Olympic Park creates a unique area integrating artistic elements including bridges, planting schemes, and large-scale sculpture.

A reference to a popular use of the park, thirty-foot tall glass and stainless steel letters form the word ‘RUN’, a work by internationally-renowned Italian artist Monica Bonvicini.

RUN by Monica Bonvicini

During the day, the letters act as a mirror, but at night, they glow with internal LED lighting. Bovicini also drew inspiration from “Running Dry”, the song by legendary musician Neil Young.

Artist Martin Richman incorporated his artwork into one of the central bridges on Olympic Park. Inspired by the energy of the Olympic Games and the flow of the rivers that run through London, Richman’s art installations include a variety of recycled glass.

One Whirl by Martin Richman

Leading to the Olympic Stadium, an interactive bridge designed by the Jason Bruges Studio allows visitors to experience a small chunk of the Olympics. During the Games, the bridge is continuously lit, but afterwards the lights will flash at the speed of the fastest 100 meter sprint.

Fast, Faster, Fastest designed by Jason Bruges Studio

Finally, at almost four hundred feet in height, The Orbit, Britain’s tallest art structure, offers perfect views over Olympic Park and all of London. Designed by British-born Indian artist Anish Kapoor, The Orbit spirals its red curves into the sky, representing London, the UK, and the five Olympic rings.

The Orbit by Anish Kapoor

- Ava Cotlowitz

[Editor's Note: Share Olympic Art with your friends! Click below to give them a look, or "Like" The Bare Square on Facebook. Thanks!]

Update (April 7, 12:42 pm): Reports today confirm the acknowledgement by Chinese officials of Ai’s arrest for “economic crimes.” Critics are calling the claims absurd, and no formal charges have been announced. Visit The Bare Square for more updates, or follow us on Twitter.

Ai Weiwei is a brilliant Chinese artist and political activist. In China, being an artist may be supported, but being a political activist can put you on the wrong side of a prison wall.

Ai Weiwei is well known for creating the sunflower seed installation in London’s Tate Modern.

Ai Weiwei sunflower seeds installation at Tate Modern London

At the request of the Chinese government, Ai also collaborated with the Swiss architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron on the design for Beijing’s Olympic stadium in 2008, known as the Bird’s Nest. The result was a widely acclaimed success.

According to The New York Times, “Then something startling happened: He denounced the Olympics as a feel-good whitewash on China’s repressive, market-hungry government.” Below, watch this video from 2007 with Ai Weiwei about the Bird’s Nest before the 2008 Olympic Games:

Arrested early Sunday morning at Beijing international airport, Ai is now the latest high-profile victim in the suppression of artists by Chinese officials.

Writer, professor and human rights activist also Liu Xiaobo also suffered from repression in China as a political prisoner. Having called for political reforms and the end to communist one-party rule, Liu is currently serving an eleven year sentence in China. Awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize during his fourth prison term for “his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China,” Liu’s incarceration prevented his personal appearance as a recipient, and the government prevented him from sending a representative to accept the prize on his behalf.

This past Sunday, Ai Weiwei was about to board a flight to Hong Kong when taken away by the police. According to the Washington Post, “Police detained Ai on Sunday morning, and his assistants and attorneys said they were concerned that they have not had any communication with him since.”

Human rights demonstrators carrying a picture of Mr. Ai outside the China Liaison Office in Hong Kong yesterday. Credit: Kin Cheung/Associated Press

International free press advocates Reporters Without Borders said that a reporter used a cell phone to take photos of  the outside of Ai’s studio after Ai’s Sunday arrest. According the reporter, plainclothes Chinese police seized the phone, deleted the photo, and told him to leave.

All mention of Ai’s arrest have been deleted from Chinese websites, and Beijing police officials deny being aware of his arrest.

A total of 77 cyber-dissidents and 30 journalists are currently detained in China, which is ranked 171st out of 178 countries in the press freedom index that Reporters Without Borders released last October.

According to The New York Times, a large public art project by Ai Weiwei will go on as schedued to occupy the Pulitzer Fountain outside the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan starting early next month whether the artist is still detained or not. AW Asia, a Chinese contemporary art organization coordinating the project, says that the works are finished and have already arrived in New York. Larry Warsh, founder of AW Asia, did say, “I’m very concerned about him and his safety.”

-Jen Wallace

With less than 500 days to go until the opening ceremonies for the 2012 London Olympics, The Bare Square is still warm with memories of 2008 and the amazing opening ceremonies in Beijing. Besides such performance, art in the Olympics seems limited, and the Olympics is more known for sport, controversy, political statements, and even marketing. While the mass media coverage may slight the role of visual art at the Olympics, The Bare Square does not!

Since 1956, the Olympics has included a cultural component. With each Olympiad (technically the 4-year period between Olympics), the arts and culture aspect has become more and more prominent. For London 2012, the Tate Modern museum has commissioned participatory artist Tino Sehgal to create a work for the finale of the cultural olympiad, and plans a retrospective of Damien Hirst. The Tate Britain will open “Picasso and Britain,” an exhibit that will convey the impact of Picasso’s 1960 Olympic on British artists like David Hockney.

Can all this pre-Olympic art hype compare to getting an honest-to-goodness medal for your hard work?

An Olympic "Arts and Letters" gold medal, 1924.

Once upon a time, artists did just that.

Pierre de Coubertin, the force behind the return of the Olympic games in 1896, spearheaded the involvement of “arts and letters” in the Olympic movement with a series of meetings in 1906 in Paris. Initially intended to launch with the 1908 London Games, an Olympic arts competition came to fruition in 1912 in Stockholm.

As described by scholar Beatriz Garcia in her article The Concept of Olympic Cultural Programmes, “From 1912 in Stockholm until 1948 in London, arts competitions were organised in parallel to the sporting competitions and artists, like athletes, competed and won gold, silver and bronze medals.”

Main categories included Architecture, Literature, Painting & Graphic Art, and Music, with numerous sub-categories.

In fact, De Coubertin, writing under a pseudonym and probably recognizing he couldn’t outrun an escargot, won a gold medal  in 1912 in Poetry. Jack B. Yeats, brother of writer William Butler Yeats and clearly suffering from a bad case of sibling rivalry, won a gold medal for a newly independent Ireland in 1924 for his painting Liffey Swim. And in 1932, Disney animator Lee Blair won a Gold Medal for his watercolor called “Rodeo.”

Liffey Swim (1923), Jack B. Yeats' Olympic-medal-winning painting.

Following the 1948 Games, dissension regarding the role of professional and amateur artists, the difficulty of promoting the cultural competitions, and the challenge of connecting the art to the event all resulted in the elimination of the competitive aspect of the art component, and the transition to the Cultural Olympiad in 1956.

In an age where marketing has exploded and professionals compete in the Olympics, The Bare Square wonders: What would a world with gold medals for artists look like in the 21st century? Who would judge? Would the gold medal increase the value of the work in the eyes of collectors?

Would artists end up on Wheaties boxes?

[Editor's Note: After just a few months, we're on track to pass over 2,000 visitors this month. Thank you! We don't advertise, so new traffic has been because of viral sharing (that doesn't sound very good) and word-of-mouth. With a couple of days left, please share your favorite articles with your friends. All it takes is a couple of clicks--thanks!]