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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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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
Present
Future
Facts
True
Surpasses
Past
Photographs
Care
Necessarily
Today
Photograph
Always

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

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If a nation cannot face its past, it has no future.
Ai Weiwei
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A city is a place that can offer maximum freedom. Otherwise it’s incomplete.
Ai Weiwei
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Maybe being powerful means to be fragile.
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What is important is that we actively express our thoughts and wishes, in every realm that we can access.
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It is not an easy job to govern China, I am aware of that. There are crises and emergencies all the time, we might not even be aware of some. But I am afraid we'll have to wait and observe precisely what the government is up to.
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The Internet has established a public sphere and developed a pressure which the government can no longer ignore.
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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We should also leave behind discrimination, because it is narrow-minded and ignorant, denies contact and warmth and corrodes mankind's belief that we can better ourselves. The only way to avoid misunderstanding, war and bloodshed is to defend freedom of expression and to communicate with sincerity, concern and good intentions.
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The IT people who have made such an effort to know and understand computer technology. They are frustrated that you cannot use Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in China. They are the first to recognize that the situation is terrible.
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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.
Ai Weiwei
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The biggest obstacle in interacting with China is the difference in perspectives about basic values. These include issues such as human rights, the concept of law and constitution.
Ai Weiwei
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For artists and intellectuals today, what is most needed is to be clear about social responsibility, because that is what most people automatically give up. Just to protect yourself as an individual is very political. You don't have to march on Tiananmen, but you do have to be clear-minded, to find your own means of expression.
Ai Weiwei
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As a person, I was born to give out my opinions. By giving out my opinions, I realize who I am. As long as I can communicate, I'm not so lonely. If I cannot travel, or do art, or have company, if they take away all my belongings, it doesn't matter at all.
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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To give a price to an artwork, no matter how high or low, is always absurd. It's not something that can be measured by money or by certain numbers.
Ai Weiwei
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Of course, there [in China] has to be chaos. It has to be crazy, and I don't think there's anything wrong about it except this government, which is really incapable of doing anything meaningful.
Ai Weiwei
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I always want people to be confused, to be shocked or realize something later.
Ai Weiwei
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Everyone of us is a potential convict.
Ai Weiwei
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Whenever there is injustice, there is tension. But in China it is very hard to release your anger unless you burn yourself or you jump from a bridge. In a society where there is no freedom of the press, it is difficult for victims to be noticed.
Ai Weiwei
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Even if there have been setbacks during these past years, China is changing. China's society is opening.
Ai Weiwei