"I never had a place I could call home, not even in China," the artist told reporters during a visit to his estate in the municipality of Montemor-o-Novo, in the district of Évora. He recalled that in the year he was born, 1957, his father, the poet Ai Qing (1910-1996), "was exiled." "I grew up in a very remote place, in a very harsh rural area, Xinjiang, so I never had a sense of home, because we were always forced to move," he said. Ai Weiwei's father, one of the greatest names in Chinese poetry, studied in Paris in the 1930s, was part of Mao Tse-Tung's communist movement, was imprisoned by the nationalist government and, years later, was sent into a 20-year exile by the communist government, which only ended with the end of the Cultural Revolution. Ai Weiwei, 67, lived outside China for 12 years, in the United States of America (USA), in the 1980s, and returned to his home country for 20 years, but has also been in exile since 2015. A major name in art in recent decades, he was part of the team that designed the so-called Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing, but became a strong critic of the Chinese regime, particularly in the wake of the earthquake that hit Sichuan in 2008. In recent years, he has settled in the Alentejo, discovered through a friend: "The Alentejo was a place I chose. Perhaps by mistake, but I chose it," he says. Dressed all in white, with a green windbreaker on top due to the cool weather that was felt in the area today, but which he later took off when the sun 'showed its face', the artist spoke about his new exhibition, with porcelain works and Lego pieces, entitled "Paradigm", which will be open to the public from Wednesday at the Galeria de São Roque in Lisbon. In a relaxed conversation on the porch of his house, he said that when he bought the property, it was only painted. He did not put any of his works inside. It remains decorated with objects from the previous owner. "I never had my work hanging in any of my studios," he confesses, adding that when friends ask, he replies that he is "the work" and that "the rest they can see in museums or galleries." Therefore, in this house in the middle of the countryside, even "the paintings hanging" in his room were from the previous owner. Like "some watercolours, perhaps bought on a cheap tourist trip to Greece or somewhere else," he illustrated. "And there's even an image of Buddha there. I didn't even touch anything. The house was repainted, it's good to clean it up a bit, but all the decorations were put back in the same place," he said. This is because, in Ai Weiwei's opinion, "art has to be life" and "life has to be art, otherwise there is no point in making art." As he "always makes big decisions in a very short time", when he found the Alentejo estate he did not hesitate. He liked "the climate and the feeling in the air" and decided that "it would be a very good place" to settle down. "I am very happy and there are many qualities here that no other place has," he noted, insisting that the area where he grew up, Xinjiang, has a climate "in summer very similar to that of the Alentejo, bright, with lots of sun and quite dry." And the people "are also slower and quite honest and friendly. All these qualities are very important," he said. At a local fresh produce market, he was asked why, with so many cities to choose from, he chose the region. He has no answer to this question, he admitted: "I always get into something and discover it later." In the Alentejo territory, he is grateful for nature, for the "relaxed and very friendly" people, some of whom still do "the same business as their parents and grandparents." "And that's what I like about it too. I don't like people who can only talk but can't walk, you know? Nowadays, education has become just talk, people don't even know how to wash dishes, they don't cook, they don't do anything. That's not what I experienced growing up, we had to do everything ourselves. I miss that kind of life and that's why I moved here." On his land, his new studio is being 'born'. A large-scale building, with walls made of small Portuguese bricks and wood brought from France, which is also impressive inside, with equally large pillars and beams and a wooden roof and stone floor, the latter from the Alentejo. And a nearly faithful replica of the one he had in Shanghai, but which was destroyed by the authorities in 2010, shortly after he finished it, he says. Except that that one was made of concrete and this one, designated as a studio but which Ai Weiwei intends to keep empty, is more conceptual, with secret joints, without any nails or screws, and with the roof rotated one degree, to make it even more difficult to fit the 'puzzle' together. "I created a big mess. I was very subversive," but "I think it's going to be a great political message," showing that "a strong order and disorder" can "coexist harmoniously," he says, admitting, however, that "no one" asked him "to be political." The building, whose construction began in February 2023 and which the artist would like to be completed in February 2025 -- he has already realised that time is relative in Portugal -- will serve "for emptiness." "I am a useless man, with a useless building, which is good, to be useless," he says ironically, stressing that, as he only has emotions when he creates a problem and solves it, that was the effort he made on his Alentejo estate: "I have a building built there. You can see the real effort." Therefore, Ai Weiwei says he does not know if he will stay "forever" in the Alentejo. For him, "forever is perhaps just a few more years" and, even so, it is better not to trust this prediction. But his emotions and work are 'poured' into the Alentejo land. 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