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The people who control culture in China have no culture.

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
Culture
People
China
Control

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

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I hope that my work expresses my worldview and encourages people to exchange ideas.
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In an environment without public platform nor protection, the individual is the most powerful and most responsible.
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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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The [China] government has improved in the last years. Of course, the structure is still the same there's still a one-party system and strong censorship.
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China and the U.S. are two societies with very different attitudes towards opinion and criticism. In China, I am constantly under surveillance. Even my slightest, most innocuous move can - and often is - censored by Chinese authorities.
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Liberty is about the right to question everything.
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In the end, I think, the state's rigidity is a function of its own insecurity, its indecisiveness.
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I'm most embarrassed at my art shows, even though I don't show it.
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To work in architecture you are so much involved with society, with politics, with bureaucrats. It's a very complicated process to do large projects. You start to see the society, how it functions, how it works. Then you have a lot of criticism about how it works.
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Art should live in the heart of the people. Ordinary people should have the same ability to understand art as anybody else. I don't think art is elite or mysterious.
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That's why I always question this sense. The feeling of home really requires a lot of trust. It requires you to identify with it, which I always find myself very contradictory to.
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No matter what happens, nothing can prevent the historical process by which society demands freedom and democracy.
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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.
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Twitter is the people’s tool, the tool of the ordinary people, people who have no other resources.
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I don't believe in the so-called Olympic spirit. I speak from personal experience. When China hosted the Games, it failed to include the people. The event was constructed without regard for their joy.
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I never saw [Allen Ginsberg] as some kind of crazy figure.
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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.
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To experience poetry is to see over and above reality. It is to discover that which is beyond the physical, to experience another life and another level of feeling. It is to wonder about the world, to understand the nature of people and, most importantly, to be shared with another, old or young, known or unknown.
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This so-called fame or being better off doesn't really attract me at all.
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Everyone thinks the Chinese government selected me. Never ever. I was selected by Herzog and de Meuron.
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