Quote

In a society that restricts individual freedoms and violates human rights, anything that calls itself creative or independent is a pretence. It is impossible for a totalitarian society to create anything with passion and imagination.

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
Creative
Freedoms
Rights
Calls
Society
Tyranny
Individual
Independent
Anything
Create
Restricts
Human
Imagination
Violates
Humans
Impossible
Pretence
Passion
Totalitarian

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

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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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Freedom of expression is a very essential condition for me to make any art. Also, it is an essential value for my life. I have to protect this right and also to fight for the possibility.
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We see the tendency in the world to criticise democracy and sometimes even to say that authoritarian countries like China are more efficient. That is very short-sighted. China looks efficient only because it can sacrifice most people's rights. This is not something the west should be happy about.
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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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All movies in China are censored. Out of 600 movies produced in China, only 60 are allowed to show in theatres.
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If there is no free speech, every single life has lived in vain
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Without freedom of speech, there is no modern world, just a barbaric one.
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I never saw [Allen Ginsberg] as some kind of crazy figure.
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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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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 think you can give meaning to any condition you can be poor or unsuccessful or be so-called successful. But I don't think that it would give an individual human being a better condition.
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I can still wake up the next day and feel that there's something that needs to be done, which always amuses me.
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This world should be much more open and should be much more free, so the young people would have the chance to exercise the quality of their lives.
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I don't think [price] reflects if the work is good or bad.A good artist shouldn't be nervous about that.
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I often feel more disgust than pride about this kind of success. So there's no regret whatsoever.
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A nation that has no music and no fairytales is a tragedy.
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I think China is laughing about the results of the presidential elections. China, Russia, they all laugh about it. They see how dramatic U.S. has to be put this kind of shame on its own - cannot handle the situation. Or show such a difficulty with this liberal ideas. Men or women created equal. And to defend those very essential ideas.
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I have always stated I designed the stadium as a toilet seat. I don't care if this is a great cultural event or a national symbol. It has nothing to do with me. It deals with the city.
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We have to give our opinion, we have to say something, or we are a part of it. As an artist I am forced to say something.
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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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