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I don't think it's worth discussing new directions in the context of Chinese art - there were no old directions, either. Chinese art has never had any clear orientation.

Ai Weiwei

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Ai Weiwei
Age: 67
Born: 1957
Born: May 18
Architect
Consultant
Contemporary Artist
Designer
Film Director
Human Rights Activist
Painter
Photographer
Sculptor
Social Activist
Peking
Wei-wei Ai
Weiwei Ai
Ai Wei Wei
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Chinese
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More quotes by Ai Weiwei

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I never saw [Allen Ginsberg] as some kind of crazy figure.
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Everyone of us is a potential convict.
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Mass production is nothing new. Weren't cathedrals built through mass production? The pyramids?... Paintings can be painted with the left hand, the right hand, someone else's hand, or many people's hands. The scale of production is irrelevant to its content.
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Stupidity can win for a moment, but it can never really succeed because the nature of humans is to seek freedom. Rulers can delay that freedom, but they cannot stop it.
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Expressing oneself is like a drug. I'm so addicted to it.
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[Shanghai Biennale] has been my attitude for as long as I've been practicing art and other cultural-related activities.
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My mother became much older when I came out (ed's note: of detention). She had problems with her hearing and high blood pressure. But they still support me.
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Choices after waking up: To be true or to lie? To take action or be brainwashed? To be free or be jailed?
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Self-censorship is insulting to the self. Timidity is a hopeless way forward.
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I never think any place is better than others.
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Warhol came from an ordinary family and he had a profound understanding about capitalism and material culture. He was probably one of the few Western artists - or artists from the United States - that could be considered a true product of his time and brought out that kind of spirit of the culture.
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Through my work and ways of expression, I strive to engage in dialogue with the society that I am living in.
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For all the tough talk about China during the presidential debates, Romney and Obama evaded any mention of China's suspect human rights record, corruption, and rule of law. By not tackling these controversial topics, the candidates are protecting a strategic partnership with China at the expense of essential human values and beliefs.
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Life is art. Art is life. I never separate it.
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It is not an easy job to govern China, I am aware of that. There are crises and emergencies all the time, we might not even be aware of some. But I am afraid we'll have to wait and observe precisely what the government is up to.
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The [China] government has improved in the last years. Of course, the structure is still the same there's still a one-party system and strong censorship.
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[Museums] all belongs to the cultural department, which is the biggest cultural department in the world.
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I think it’s a responsibility for any artist to protect freedom of expression and to use any way to extend this power.
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To work in architecture you are so much involved with society, with politics, with bureaucrats. It's a very complicated process to do large projects. You start to see the society, how it functions, how it works. Then you have a lot of criticism about how it works.
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During the days in detention, I thought most about the moon.
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