Quote

A city is a place that can offer maximum freedom. Otherwise it’s incomplete.

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
Place
Incomplete
Maximum
Offer
Otherwise
Offers
City
Cities

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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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.
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My definition of art has always been the same. It is about freedom of expression. I don’t think anybody can separate art from politics. The intention to separate [the two] is itself a very political intention.
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I never really read Allen Ginsberg poetry, even though I have a book he gave me.
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Your own acts tell the world who you are and what kind of society you think it should be.
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We should use this public sphere and redefine - beyond China's borders - what a government is allowed to do, where its powers end and where the realm of a citizen's privacy begins.
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I think I'm just a traveler. When you walk across a river and there's no bridge, you build one. I'm used to having to deal with Chinese Communist ideology - it's not really an ideology, but a method of control. But China's problems are not just China's problems - they're human problems. Humanity has always worked better when you see it as one.
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Art is always about overcoming obstacles between the inner condition and the skill for expression.
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Through my work and ways of expression, I strive to engage in dialogue with the society that I am living in.
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I always want people to be confused, to be shocked or realize something later.
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A nation that has no music and no fairytales is a tragedy.
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I think art is a very important weapon to achieve human freedom
Ai Weiwei
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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.
Ai Weiwei
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Without freedom of speech, there is no modern world, just a barbaric one.
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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No outdoor sports can be more elegant than throwing stones at autocracy no melees can be more exciting than those in cyberspace.
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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.
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In a society that restricts individual freedoms and violates human rights, anything that calls itself creative or independent is a pretence. It is impossible for a totalitarian society to create anything with passion and imagination.
Ai Weiwei
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I don't think it's worth discussing new directions in the context of Chinese art - there were no old directions, either. Chinese art has never had any clear orientation.
Ai Weiwei
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Chinese government is very clearly losing power in every aspect, but trying to fix up all the problems or potential problems.
Ai Weiwei