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I always want people to be confused, to be shocked or realize something later.

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
Shock
Confused
Later
Realize
Realizing
Something
Always
People
Shocked

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

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Any design, any city, any kind of craziness or tragedy, it all comes from a long time of preparation.
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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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Maybe [success] is because I'm in China and I'm more open. Maybe it's my independent behavior, or because I participated in certain projects. I have no idea.
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When I first got into the first-year study after the Cultural Revolution, got into the same school with this group, I wasn't conscious of the so-called Fifth Generation. I didn't like that kind of study condition because there's no real, true education there.
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Liberty is about the right to question everything.
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The demand for individual freedom leads us to different realms, and it enables us to participate in social events.
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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.
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Creativity is the power to reject the past, to change the status quo, and to seek new potential. Simply put, aside from using one's imagination - perhaps more importantly - creativity is the power to act.
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[Being unique] gives so much privilege to people who can make it, rather than having some moral and aesthetic discussions.
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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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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 always admire writers. My father was a writer, a poet. I always admire people who can clearly state their mind.
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China and the U.S. are two societies with very different attitudes towards opinion and criticism. In China, I am constantly under surveillance. Even my slightest, most innocuous move can - and often is - censored by Chinese authorities.
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I suddenly realized I was getting ten opening notes a day on my mobile phone, more than when I was in New York. But this is China, where nothing is surprising.
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Life is art. Art is life. I never separate it. I don’t feel that much anger. I equally have a lot of joy.
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I think by not letting young people be fully informed, how can they have energy and passion and the right picture of the world? I think that's the true crime.
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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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What counts in the end is what the government does.
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The Internet changes the structure of society all the time — this massiveness made of individuals.
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To express yourself needs a reason, but expressing yourself is the reason.
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