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If my art has nothing to do with people's pain and sorrow, what is 'art' for?

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
Sorrow
Pain
Art
Nothing
People

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

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All the rich people collect traditional Chinese art. So it's very natural for Chinese families to still see art as the highest human performance and send their children to this field.
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Art needs to stand for something.
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My situation gives me certain ideas about beauty or the excitement of life, but that doesn't mean other people can necessarily appreciate it.
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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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Recently I danced in a video spoof of the song 'Gangnam Style,' and it was quickly banned across multiple Chinese online video platforms. But the story still traveled all over the world, carried in hundreds of international media reports.
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It [success] is really by mistake.
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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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During the days in detention, I thought most about the moon.
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The people who control culture in China have no culture.
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As a person, I was born to give out my opinions. By giving out my opinions, I realize who I am. As long as I can communicate, I'm not so lonely. If I cannot travel, or do art, or have company, if they take away all my belongings, it doesn't matter at all.
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[Shanghai Biennale] has been my attitude for as long as I've been practicing art and other cultural-related activities.
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If I really have nothing to do, I just watch my cats, take some photos, and go back to my personal blog.
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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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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.
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We move so fast that memory is something we can only grasp
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My angst and my insecurity reflect the state's angst and insecurity. The state is scared too.
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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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I'm not nostalgic about the old city. I don't enjoy it that much. It was just a city with one emperor and the rest of them just rats or meaningless people.
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The purpose of art is the fight for freedom.
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If civil society has nobody who protects the law, then what kind of society is that?
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