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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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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
Right
Conditions
Make
Expression
Life
Fight
Condition
Fighting
Essential
Values
Essentials
Freedom
Possibility
Art
Protect
Also
Value

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

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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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Your own acts tell the world who you are and what kind of society you think it should be.
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To express yourself needs a reason, but expressing yourself is the reason.
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If my art has nothing to do with people's pain and sorrow, what is 'art' for?
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Life is art. Art is life. I never separate it. I don’t feel that much anger. I equally have a lot of joy.
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[Cultural departments] don't care about culture. Maybe they're the furthest from the people who understand culture.
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I often feel more disgust than pride about this kind of success. So there's no regret whatsoever.
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It [success] is really by mistake.
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Our lives are bound by physical limits, familial ties, political conditions, and geographical restrictions. Individual freedom takes us beyond them all.
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All the rich people collect traditional Chinese art. So it's very natural for Chinese families to still see art as the highest human performance and send their children to this field.
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Overturning police cars is a super-intense workout. It’s probably the only sport I enjoy.
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I think I'm just a traveler. When you walk across a river and there's no bridge, you build one. I'm used to having to deal with Chinese Communist ideology - it's not really an ideology, but a method of control. But China's problems are not just China's problems - they're human problems. Humanity has always worked better when you see it as one.
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I don’t want the next generation to fight the same fight as I did.
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If you don’t act, the danger becomes stronger.
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In my case, I was stuck there for quite a while. New York is large enough to be a very abstract city, so nobody cares.
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China partially wants to become part of the world. By hosting the Olympics and the Expo, they made a big effort to tell people: Look, we are the same. They want to be accepted by the international community.
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...photographs are facts, but not necessarily true... The present always surpasses the past, and the future will not care about today.
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I'm most embarrassed at my art shows, even though I don't show it.
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Creativity is part of human nature. It can only be untaught.
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I'm a free man now, except I cannot leave China. You know, I have no desire to travel. I have so many things to do I cannot finish them now.
Ai Weiwei