Artist adds big rock to mountain

An artist is to place a four tonne boulder on top of one of Austria's highest mountains.

Ai Weiwei - who designed the Birds Nest stadium for the Beijing Olympics - has been given permission to take the massive rock to the top of the 9,000 ft high Hoher Dachstein peak.

The artist says the work will highlight the tension between man and his environment.

"It will be flown to the peak by helicopter and Ai Weiwei will personally supervise its positioning," said one official.

Artist and architect Weiwei, 53, is the son of Chinese poet Ai Qing who was branded a dissident and sent to a labour camp in Xinjiang with his wife Gao Ying and the young Ai during the cultural revolution.

Ai has now emerged as one of China's most influential bloggers and social activists known as much for his vulgar social commentary as for his frequent run-ins with Chinese authorities.

He was particularly focused for example on exposing corruption in the construction of Sichuan schools that collapsed during the earthquake.