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I think art is a very important weapon to achieve human freedom

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
Important
Think
Weapon
Thinking
Weapons
Achieve
Freedom
Art
Human
Humans

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A nation that has no music and no fairytales is a tragedy.
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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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This so-called contemporary art is not a form, but a philosophy of society.
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I want people to see their own power.
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Warhol came from an ordinary family and he had a profound understanding about capitalism and material culture. He was probably one of the few Western artists - or artists from the United States - that could be considered a true product of his time and brought out that kind of spirit of the culture.
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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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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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The society was so different [in China] - it was a feudalistic society. It didn't come to a point of industrial revolution until twenty years ago.
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You're still being looked at as somebody who - it's a very complicated issue.
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I came back [to Beijing ] because that's the only time I had an excuse to come back, or otherwise I would never have a reason to come back.
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China hasn't only existed for one day. Now, the whole nation has become richer and it's become a problem. The problem is universal. The factor is big. Everybody has to rethink the balance of the world and the whole landscape.
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If human rights are supposed to have any meaning, then they have to be discussed openly.
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Politics is like air and water. And you know if there is bad politics. Everyone is polluted. Everyone is unhealthy. See the people walking on the street: how they act.
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Because Great Britain has self-confidence, it doesn't need a monumental Olympics.
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I think it’s a responsibility for any artist to protect freedom of expression and to use any way to extend this power.
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Each year, more people want to become artists.
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To the media, I have become a symbolic figure, critical of China. According to the government, I am a dangerous threat.
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Overturning police cars is a super-intense workout. It’s probably the only sport I enjoy.
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I remember one little rainy day I went searching for this apartment and I saw so many people standing on a stoop on the corner in the rain. Later I realized, that was drug traffic. They were all buying drugs.
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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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