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

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

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I don't think China should care if this crazy old guy should have a show here or not. You have so many museums in the West, and so many shows, you need somebody to show the work, otherwise it's empty.
Ai Weiwei
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The freedom of speech is an important yardstick for a society's level of civilization.
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China's culture and history are closely related to my living environment. This country is my birthplace. It is also where I grew up. Its culture and history shape my relations with family, friends, society, and daily life.
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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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My work is always a ready-made... cultural, political, or social, and also it could be art - to make people re-look at what we have done, its original position, to create new possibilities.
Ai Weiwei
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I think Allen [Ginsberg] was a person who's like a child.
Ai Weiwei
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To survive, China had to open up to the West. It could not survive otherwise. This was after many millions have died of hunger in a country that was like North Korea is today. Once we became part of global competition, we had to agree to some rules. It's painful, but we had to. Otherwise there was no way to survive.
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Everything is art. Everything is politics.
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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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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
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As a human being, member of society, you must clearly state your mind. It's a responsibility. It is the way you identify yourself otherwise you don't know who you are and why you are here.
Ai Weiwei
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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.
Ai Weiwei
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It doesn't matter where I am - China will stay in me. I don't know how far I can still walk on this road and what is the limit.
Ai Weiwei
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Even if I have hundreds of things to do, the disconnected feeling is still there because it is very hard to find a real purpose of life.
Ai Weiwei
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Creativity is part of human nature. It can only be untaught.
Ai Weiwei
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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.
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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For me, it is OK as long as I can breathe, as long as my heart is pumping, as long as I can express myself.
Ai Weiwei
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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.
Ai Weiwei
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Democracy, material wealth, and universal education are the soil upon which modernism exists.
Ai Weiwei