Quote

The misconception of totalitarianism is that freedom can be imprisoned. This is not the case. When you constrain freedom, freedom will take flight and land on a windowsill.

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
Case
Cases
Land
Windowsill
Freedom
Constrain
Take
Totalitarianism
Imprisoned
Misconception
Flight

More quotes by 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.
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Everyone of us is a potential convict.
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Growing up, my family was an enemy of the state. I have experienced more disappointment than joy, much more sad stories or desperate conditions.
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Warhol influenced me because of his writing. If I had never read his writings and interviews, I would never have understood his work.
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Chinese citizens have never had the right to really express their opinions in the constitution it says you can, but in the real world it is more dangerous. In the west people think it's a right they're born with. Here it's a right given by the government, and one that's not really practised.
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It became like a symbolic thing, to be “an artist.” After Duchamp, I realized that being an artist is more about a lifestyle and attitude than producing some product.
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This so-called contemporary art is not a form, but a philosophy of society.
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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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This is a very general understanding of art in China, that being an artist can make you money and turn you into a star.
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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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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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If you just turn to your paper or television each day, there are thousands of stories that are much more shocking than the gallery artworks.
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We are living in a popular culture where everything is overexposed.
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Everyone wants an iPhone, but it would be impossible to design an iPhone in China because it's not a product it's an understanding of human nature.
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Behind every political deal in this country, the first casualties are always the ordinary people, who are barely treated as human.
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Even though everybody who looked at me would call me a Chinese artist, that's the 1980s. New York in the '80s was not so interesting. I think it's quite narrow-minded. There wasn't much encouragement or opportunities for any artist - not just Chinese artists.
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I never had a sense of home.
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I don't belong to a working system. They only select people if you belong to one so you can be controlled.
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It's always nice to share your energy with young people, the people who might not have any skills but are simply willing to be a part of it.
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The Internet has established a public sphere and developed a pressure which the government can no longer ignore.
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