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These are nonviolent people who have lost their freedom simply because they expressed their ideas….In truth, they are heroes of our time.

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
Ideas
Nonviolent
Time
Expressed
People
Heroes
Hero
Simply
Freedom
Lost
Truth

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

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There is no media freedom in China. As a result, the society is corrupt and lacks productivity. It is unable to adjust itself for progress. This will lead to the country's eventual downfall.
Ai Weiwei
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The practice of photography is no longer a means for recording reality. Instead, it has become reality itself
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Destroy or build. Crazy or noncrazy. I'm not nostalgic about the old city. I don't enjoy it that much.
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Cities really are mental conditions. Beijing is a nightmare. A constant nightmare.
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We grew up in a very material-lacking socialist society, but today China is a capitalist society. It's very materialistic. It's full of desire and luxury goods.
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A nation that has no music and no fairytales is a tragedy.
Ai Weiwei
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I'm most embarrassed at my art shows, even though I don't show it.
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I think art certainly is the vehicle for us to develop any new ideas, to be creative, to extend our imagination, to change the current conditions.
Ai Weiwei
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In China, we don't have any contemporary art museums. Until a few years ago, we didn't even have a gallery.
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New York was not a romantic city at [80th]. Nobody knows who you are and you don't have to care about anybody else. It's a very cold city, I should say.
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Twitter is most suitable for me. In the Chinese language, 140 characters is a novella.
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Once you've tasted freedom, it stays in your heart and no one can take it. Then, you can be more powerful than a whole country.
Ai Weiwei
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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.
Ai Weiwei
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There's no single artwork I even want to mention or that I can even really think about it to have any feeling, to be proud of it.
Ai Weiwei
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The world is not changing if you don’t shoulder the burden of responsibility.
Ai Weiwei
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If a society cannot even support somebody like me, then people ask: Who is under protection then? That's why there is such support for me. It is not because I am so beautiful or I am so charming. People feel: This guy is fighting for us.
Ai Weiwei
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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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I always want people to be confused, to be shocked or realize something later.
Ai Weiwei
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At the moment about 350,000 students return to China from abroad each year - 350,000 young and educated people. I know about them because they know me and often ask me in the street if they can take a selfie with me. These folks are creative and ironic, and the government can ultimately not control what is going on in their heads.
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New York is a city where you're so alone, you're an individual, you can disappear. You can make something happen. But it's very different to make something happen in the art world.
Ai Weiwei