Quote

We have to give our opinion, we have to say something, or we are a part of it. As an artist I am forced to say something.

Ai Weiwei

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Forced
Opinion
Artist
Part
Give
Giving
Something

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

Image
Censorship is saying: I'm the one who says the last sentence. Whatever you say, the conclusion is mine. But the internet is like a tree that is growing. The people will always have the last word – even if someone has a very weak, quiet voice. Such power will collapse because of a whisper.
Ai Weiwei
Image
For years, I refused to go to any openings, not even my own.
Ai Weiwei
Image
Once you've tasted freedom, it stays in your heart and no one can take it. Then, you can be more powerful than a whole country.
Ai Weiwei
Image
People have a tendency to become elite rather than to care about the general conditions of the society, which makes me sick. It's an unbearable condition.
Ai Weiwei
Image
I suddenly realized I was getting ten opening notes a day on my mobile phone, more than when I was in New York. But this is China, where nothing is surprising.
Ai Weiwei
Image
I don't think China has professional museums - not in the past, present, or near future.
Ai Weiwei
Image
Now many enterprises are made by individuals, so the attitude has started to change.
Ai Weiwei
Image
The media is the message. It carries the full intention and the meaning. Once you change it...it's very disturbing.
Ai Weiwei
Image
Everyone thinks the Chinese government selected me. Never ever. I was selected by Herzog and de Meuron.
Ai Weiwei
Image
If a nation cannot face its past, it has no future.
Ai Weiwei
Image
That's why I always question this sense. The feeling of home really requires a lot of trust. It requires you to identify with it, which I always find myself very contradictory to.
Ai Weiwei
Image
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.
Ai Weiwei
Image
Life is art. Art is life. I never separate it.
Ai Weiwei
Image
Chinese government is very clearly losing power in every aspect, but trying to fix up all the problems or potential problems.
Ai Weiwei
Image
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
Image
Every day I'm learning something new from the practice. It's very rewarding.
Ai Weiwei
Image
A nation that has no music and no fairytales is a tragedy.
Ai Weiwei
Image
I think by shattering it we can create a new form, a new way to look at what is valuable — how we decide what is valuable.
Ai Weiwei
Image
I never saw [Allen Ginsberg] as some kind of crazy figure.
Ai Weiwei
Image
The United States is a melting pot. Like John F. Kennedy said, it's a nation of immigrants. But Donald Trump wants to build a fence that clearly makes the statement: You and I are divided. We're different, and you're dangerous. That kind of thinking stops human, civilized evolution. It's dangerous to create that kind of tension.
Ai Weiwei