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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

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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
Something
Forced
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More quotes by Ai Weiwei

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I think we cannot have a double standard. We cannot see our art as different from the reality. We cannot use two different sets of judgment.
Ai Weiwei
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If artists cannot speak up for human dignity or rights, then who else will do it?
Ai Weiwei
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I think Allen [Ginsberg] was a person who's like a child.
Ai Weiwei
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I think China is laughing about the results of the presidential elections. China, Russia, they all laugh about it. They see how dramatic U.S. has to be put this kind of shame on its own - cannot handle the situation. Or show such a difficulty with this liberal ideas. Men or women created equal. And to defend those very essential ideas.
Ai Weiwei
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This world should be much more open and should be much more free, so the young people would have the chance to exercise the quality of their lives.
Ai Weiwei
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Being an artist is more of a mindset, a way of seeing things it is no longer so much about producing something.
Ai Weiwei
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In the '80s, you couldn't walk in the neighborhood without looking back to see if anyone was following you. You had your key in your hand before you got to your apartment and you'd rush in so you didn't have to stop.
Ai Weiwei
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Man has a tendency to try to give clear reasons to be rational, but often you can see how all those reasons are not convincing and turn out to be a big nonsense.
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I don’t want the next generation to fight the same fight as I did.
Ai Weiwei
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The world is not changing if you don’t shoulder the burden of responsibility.
Ai Weiwei
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Once you've tasted freedom, it stays in your heart...
Ai Weiwei
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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.
Ai Weiwei
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A historical property has morals and ethics of the society that created it and it can be revived. What I mean is that we can discover new possibilities from the process of dismantling, transforming, and recreating.
Ai Weiwei
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A nation like China has become one of the biggest production fields for exporting cheap labor, which also re-questions our history and past, re-questions human desire, and the human illusions of the past.
Ai Weiwei
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The freedom of speech is an important yardstick for a society's level of civilization.
Ai Weiwei
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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 don't think China has professional museums - not in the past, present, or near future.
Ai Weiwei
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This week, the world gathers in Beijing for the 2008 Olympic games. This is the extraordinary moment China has been dreaming of for 100 years. People have been longing for this moment, because it symbolises a turning point in China's relationship with the outside world.
Ai Weiwei
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For artists and intellectuals today, what is most needed is to be clear about social responsibility, because that is what most people automatically give up. Just to protect yourself as an individual is very political. You don't have to march on Tiananmen, but you do have to be clear-minded, to find your own means of expression.
Ai Weiwei
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I am very much interested in the so-called useless object. I mean, it takes perfect craftsmanship, beautiful material carefully measured and crafted, but at the same time it’s really useless.
Ai Weiwei