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Ai Weiwei Quotes
213 Sourced Quotes
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I always want to design a frame that's open to everyone. I don't see art as a secret code.
Ai Weiwei
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I came to art because I wanted to escape the other regulations of the society. The whole society is so political. But the irony is that my art becomes more and more political.
Ai Weiwei
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To protect the right of expression is the central part of an artist's activity..... In China many essential rights are lacking, and I wanted to remind people of this.
Ai Weiwei
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The government may be made up of clever, sensible people. But if they do not believe in basic human values, the more clever or shrewd they are the greater the tragedy they will create.
Ai Weiwei
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Creativity is part of human nature. It can only be untaught.
Ai Weiwei
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Beijing is two cities. One is of power and of money. People don't care who their neighbors are; they don't trust you. The other city is one of desperation. I see people on public buses, and I see their eyes, and I see they hold no hope. They can't even imagine that they'll be able to buy a house. They come from very poor villages where they've never seen electricity or toilet paper.
Ai Weiwei
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House arrest, travel restrictions, surveillance, stopping phone service, cutting the Internet connection. What we can still do is greet the crazy motherland once again.
Ai Weiwei
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Freedom of expression is a very essential condition for me to make any art. Also, it is an essential value for my life. I have to protect this right and also to fight for the possibility.
Ai Weiwei
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I have the responsibility to let the people know what happened to me, and did I commit the crime or if I didn't, what is the real accusation? Why am I in this condition today? I think it reflects our human condition in this piece of land, and if I don't bear some responsibility.... many, many people, their voice can never be heard.
Ai Weiwei
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The 2008 Olympics has created an illusion of China to the public and to the outside world. It is so fantastic, so unreal, that the entire meaning of the games is being distorted.
Ai Weiwei
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I think I have this responsibility to my father's generation, and especially future generations.
Ai Weiwei
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The disaster-makers always get away, while the innocent are always punished.
Ai Weiwei
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When I checked into a hospital [in Germany, after having been beaten by police in Sichuan], I was told there was bleeding in my brain and I was near fatal collapse. I was rushed into surgery. When I awoke I felt like a normal person again. But I will not feel whole until I and my fellow Chinese can live freely.
Ai Weiwei
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As an artist, I am very familiar with how to show the details, how to transform them into a language people can understand. They [the government] know that the Internet is a strong force, unbearable for them.
Ai Weiwei
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Anyone who cares about truth should avoid not politics, but Olympic lies.
Ai Weiwei
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Twitter is most suitable for me. In the Chinese language, 140 characters is a novella,
Ai Weiwei
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China might seem quite successful in its controls, but it has only raised the water level. It's like building a dam: it thinks there is more water so it will build higher. But every drop of water is still in there. It doesn't understand how to let the pressure out. It builds up a way to maintain control and push the problem to the next generation.
Ai Weiwei
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It is as difficult [for Chinese politicians] to get a real smile [from the people] as it is to keep the sky blue and clouds white.
Ai Weiwei
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No autocracy can lead people to believe that they are living in harmony and happiness.
Ai Weiwei
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I think China is in a chaos now and it could be more chaos. It's an orderly chaos. It's a party that ruthlessly violates every human's basic rights to serve its own purpose.
Ai Weiwei
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Not an inch of the land belongs to you, but every inch could easily imprison you.
Ai Weiwei
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No matter how long our politicians order people to sing songs of praise, no matter how many fireworks they launch into the heavens, and no matter how many foreign leaders they embrace, they cannot arouse a genuine mood of joy and celebration among the people.
Ai Weiwei
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I am always trying to find how to get the message through. [In Munich] we custom-made five thousand backpacks like the ones of those students [who died in Sichuan] to construct a simple sentence [spoken by the] mother of a dead student. It was: 'She has been happily living in this world for seven years.'
Ai Weiwei
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Antiques exist as evidence of the cultural tracks we made in the past.
Ai Weiwei
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The Internet is uncontrollable. And if the Internet is uncontrollable, freedom will win. It's as simple as that.
Ai Weiwei
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Quote of the day
Time and trouble will tame an advanced young woman, but an advanced old woman is uncontrollable by any earthly force.
Dorothy L. Sayers
Ai Weiwei
Creative Commons
Born:
August 28, 1957
(age 66)
Bio:
Ai Weiwei is a Chinese Contemporary artist and activist. Ai collaborated with Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron as the artistic consultant on the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008 Olympics.
Known for:
Sunflower Seeds (2010)
Coca-Cola vase
Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads (2011)
Cube Light (2008)
Map of China (2008)
Most used words:
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china
art
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