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If artists cannot speak up for human dignity or rights, then who else will do it?

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
Else
Cannot
Human
Humans
Artists
Dignity
Rights
Speak
Artist

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.
Ai Weiwei
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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
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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.
Ai Weiwei
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This so-called fame or being better off doesn't really attract me at all.
Ai Weiwei
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My definition of art has always been the same. It is about freedom of expression. I don’t think anybody can separate art from politics. The intention to separate [the two] is itself a very political intention.
Ai Weiwei
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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.
Ai Weiwei
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China spends a lot of resources and effort on gaining soft power over culture. The hope is that it can be the last lifeline for the Party's survival. Obviously, the idea will fail.
Ai Weiwei
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I don't think there is a distinct change, because in the West I'm not a person who can serve his purpose.
Ai Weiwei
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Many people I know - writers, poets - they have all been sentenced not once but sometimes three times after they come out. They serve five or six years, come out another time, and then nine years. Come out again, 12 years. Only because they have a different opinion. They are innocent people, they have beautiful minds, beautiful hearts.
Ai Weiwei
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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.
Ai Weiwei
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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.
Ai Weiwei
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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.
Ai Weiwei
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I'm most embarrassed at my art shows, even though I don't show it.
Ai Weiwei
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My musician friends are banned from playing concerts in China because they share the same views as I do. My name cannot appear on the web, because my opinion is different from the Party.
Ai Weiwei
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Politics is like air and water. And you know if there is bad politics. Everyone is polluted. Everyone is unhealthy. See the people walking on the street: how they act.
Ai Weiwei
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I never had a sense of home.
Ai Weiwei
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In my life, I often make so-called major decisions by very quick, immediate responses.
Ai Weiwei
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Chinese government is very clearly losing power in every aspect, but trying to fix up all the problems or potential problems.
Ai Weiwei
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Anyone fighting for freedom does not want to totally lose their freedom.
Ai Weiwei
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My definition of art has always been the same. It is about freedom of expression, a new way of communication. It is never about exhibiting in museums or about hanging it on the wall.
Ai Weiwei