Quote

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

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Make
Cities
World
Happen
Alone
Individual
Art
Happens
Disappear
Different
York
Something
City

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

Image
I'm totally independent. I don't bear any responsibility to any system.
Ai Weiwei
Image
Measuring national prestige by gold medals is like using Viagra to judge the potency of a man.
Ai Weiwei
Image
Through my work and ways of expression, I strive to engage in dialogue with the society that I am living in.
Ai Weiwei
Image
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
Image
Society becomes very destructive.
Ai Weiwei
Image
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.
Ai Weiwei
Image
If civil society has nobody who protects the law, then what kind of society is that?
Ai Weiwei
Image
I spent a lot of time standing on street corners [of New York City] talking to local residents. I spent time in bookstores and galleries. But most of the time, I really did not have much to do.
Ai Weiwei
Image
The practice of photography is no longer a means for recording reality. Instead, it has become reality itself
Ai Weiwei
Image
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.
Ai Weiwei
Image
This so-called fame or being better off doesn't really attract me at all.
Ai Weiwei
Image
I curated this show [Shanghai Biennale ], I was by no means trying to shock people or be controversial.
Ai Weiwei
Image
China has not established the rule of law and if there is a power above the law there is no social justice. Everybody can be subjected to harm. I'm just a citizen: my life is equal in value to any other. But I'm thankful that when I lost my freedom so many people shared feelings and put such touching effort into helping me.
Ai Weiwei
Image
You can never know what is and what is not powerful, but you can always find out what the powerful people are scared of. A state like China looks so powerful, but they are so scared of the Internet, so the Internet is more powerful than them.
Ai Weiwei
Image
My childhood was quite extreme. Sometimes I was so weak I could not stand up. But now I am so strong. Life is unpredictable
Ai Weiwei
Image
If my art has nothing to do with people's pain and sorrow, what is 'art' for?
Ai Weiwei
Image
Creativity is part of human nature. It can only be untaught.
Ai Weiwei
Image
The motivation is really to say people can find the game of getting involved interesting and find the problem and really have the passion and the enthusiasm to solve it and move forward, but that's all I know.
Ai Weiwei
Image
I also have to speak out for people around me who are afraid, who think it is not worth it or who have totally given up hope. So I want to set an example: you can do it and this is OK, to speak out.
Ai Weiwei
Image
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.
Ai Weiwei