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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

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

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

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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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China has a rich history that has spanned millennia. It consists of the histories of many nations and regions.
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The purpose of art is the fight for freedom.
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I believe [the architecture firm] Herzog and de Meuron and our collaboration made the product the best it could be.
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Otherwise, I think the building can be bigger, larger, and the city can be much more crazy. The problem is the government structure is so deadly stupid, not really solving problems but creating a lot of problems itself every day.
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Somehow, we [ Tan Dun and director Chen Kaige] were all privileged at the time we could be outside of China. But at the moment, we had no sense of what the future was going to be like.
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Liberty is about our rights to question everything.
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My mother became much older when I came out (ed's note: of detention). She had problems with her hearing and high blood pressure. But they still support me.
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Twitter is the people’s tool, the tool of the ordinary people, people who have no other resources.
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My situation gives me certain ideas about beauty or the excitement of life, but that doesn't mean other people can necessarily appreciate it.
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Because Great Britain has self-confidence, it doesn't need a monumental Olympics.
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For me, it is OK as long as I can breathe, as long as my heart is pumping, as long as I can express myself.
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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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Say what you say plainly, and then take responsibility for it.
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Any politician who respects China's government should tell it openly what is in his heart. It is disrespectful to keep quiet about such issues - both vis-a-vis the government and the people concerned.
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In an environment without public platform nor protection, the individual is the most powerful and most responsible.
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[Cultural departments] don't care about culture. Maybe they're the furthest from the people who understand culture.
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A lot of the time [in the U.S.], I was thinking about how spending time is always questionable or is always the biggest obstacle in my life.
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Mass production is nothing new. Weren't cathedrals built through mass production? The pyramids?... Paintings can be painted with the left hand, the right hand, someone else's hand, or many people's hands. The scale of production is irrelevant to its content.
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Everyone of us is a potential convict.
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