Quote

In an environment without public platform nor protection, the individual is the most powerful and most responsible.

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
Protection
Responsible
Environment
Public
Powerful
Individual
Without
Platform
Platforms

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

Image
My image of what a city should be - the super-rich and all the poor and desperate and the people who have some kind of a desire. It's a surviving game, people trying to survive on many different levels.
Ai Weiwei
Image
Everyone thinks the Chinese government selected me. Never ever. I was selected by Herzog and de Meuron.
Ai Weiwei
Image
The purpose of art is the fight for freedom.
Ai Weiwei
Image
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.
Ai Weiwei
Image
As a person, I was born to give out my opinions. By giving out my opinions, I realize who I am. As long as I can communicate, I'm not so lonely. If I cannot travel, or do art, or have company, if they take away all my belongings, it doesn't matter at all.
Ai Weiwei
Image
It became like a symbolic thing, to be “an artist.” After Duchamp, I realized that being an artist is more about a lifestyle and attitude than producing some product.
Ai Weiwei
Image
I think U.S. and China is a big opportunity, to be seen as partner or some kind of strategic partner maybe. But those kind of powers have a way of getting too big, then we'll have competition. And who is going to win the competition if U.S. cannot hold a strong ideology? And even the U.S. would've lost the ground to win.
Ai Weiwei
Image
I call on people to be 'obsessed citizens,' forever questioning and asking for accountability. That's the only chance we have today of a healthy and happy life.
Ai Weiwei
Image
I think of art as coming from daily life, daily experience. I think it's very important not to have it become work for some kind of elite circle.
Ai Weiwei
Image
Liberty is about our rights to question everything.
Ai Weiwei
Image
My understanding of Chinese history is limited. So far, I have only scratched its surface I wish I could find out more.
Ai Weiwei
Image
To call yourself a Chinese artist or woman artist or African artist reflects a certain kind of condition. To me, that is not necessary.
Ai Weiwei
Image
The demand for individual freedom leads us to different realms, and it enables us to participate in social events.
Ai Weiwei
Image
Anyone fighting for freedom does not want to totally lose their freedom.
Ai Weiwei
Image
A small act is worth a million thoughts.
Ai Weiwei
Image
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.
Ai Weiwei
Image
The whole Chinese system - not just the political leadership, the military too, the whole power structure, our education system, the whole of society - is suffering from being cut off from the free flow of information. That's why the country can't face up to open competition - unless it resorts to measures like North Korea.
Ai Weiwei
Image
Somehow, we [ Tan Dun and director Chen Kaige] were all privileged at the time we could be outside of China. But at the moment, we had no sense of what the future was going to be like.
Ai Weiwei
Image
As a total activity - I practice curating, art, architecture, writing, and publishing all together. I still act as a living creature.
Ai Weiwei
Image
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