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

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

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I think everybody deserves freedom. Freedom is such an abstract word, but it's all we need.
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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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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.
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By participating in the society we live in, we understand our conditions and the way we relate to the world.
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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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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.
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Twitter is most suitable for me. In the Chinese language, 140 characters is a novella.
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It [success] is really by mistake.
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This so-called contemporary art is not a form, but a philosophy of society.
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Without freedom of speech, there is no modern world, just a barbaric one.
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Technology is a liberation. I think the information age probably is the best thing to happen to the human race in human evolution. Now you have the equal opportunity to equip yourself through information and knowledge and express yourself as an independent mind.
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Everyone of us is a potential convict.
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In a society like this there is no negotiation, no discussion, except to tell you that power can crush you any time they want — not only you, your whole family and all people like you.
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It's really rubbish that some kind of technical learning means you will be a better person because you know this skill better.
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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.
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My understanding of Chinese history is limited. So far, I have only scratched its surface I wish I could find out more.
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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.
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I never had secure, belonging feelings with this society [in China].
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You can never know what is and what is not powerful, but you can always find out what the powerful people are scared of. A state like China looks so powerful, but they are so scared of the Internet, so the Internet is more powerful than them.
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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.
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