Quote

If there is no freedom of expression, then the beauty of life is lost. Participation in a society is not an artistic choice, it’s a human need.

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
Needs
Beauty
Life
Choices
Society
Freedom
Lost
Participation
Human
Artistic
Humans
Choice
Need
Expression

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

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The media is the message. It carries the full intention and the meaning. Once you change it...it's very disturbing.
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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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If a nation cannot face its past, it has no future.
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Dictatorship is a story about death of others who turn out to be you coincidently.
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This so-called fame or being better off doesn't really attract me at all.
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We live in changing times, and many people experience the challenges that come with it. In the face of uncertain futures, no one will know what to expect.
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China spends a lot of resources and effort on gaining soft power over culture. The hope is that it can be the last lifeline for the Party's survival. Obviously, the idea will fail.
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I believe [the architecture firm] Herzog and de Meuron and our collaboration made the product the best it could be.
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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 think optimism is whether you are still exhilarated by life, whether you are curious, whether you still believe there is possibility.
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I have always stated I designed the stadium as a toilet seat. I don't care if this is a great cultural event or a national symbol. It has nothing to do with me. It deals with the city.
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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.
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I don't think my father had a direct influence on me, but I do think, more or less, I was influenced by his independent individualism. And the kind of condition he had when he was in this society - the kind of mistreatment society gave him.
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Say what you say plainly, and then take responsibility for it.
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We grew up in a very material-lacking socialist society, but today China is a capitalist society. It's very materialistic. It's full of desire and luxury goods.
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To express yourself needs a reason, but expressing yourself is the reason.
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Maybe being powerful means to be fragile.
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Only with the Internet can a peasant I have never met hear my voice and I can learn what's on his mind. A fairy tale has come true.
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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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What counts in the end is what the government does.
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