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By participating in the society we live in, we understand our conditions and the way we relate to the 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
Way
World
Participating
Relate
Conditions
Society
Understand
Live

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

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[Cultural department] understand nothing but bureaucratic daily affairs. They don't care about culture.
Ai Weiwei
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I never had secure, belonging feelings with this society [in China].
Ai Weiwei
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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.
Ai Weiwei
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I suddenly realized I was getting ten opening notes a day on my mobile phone, more than when I was in New York. But this is China, where nothing is surprising.
Ai Weiwei
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Through my work and ways of expression, I strive to engage in dialogue with the society that I am living in.
Ai Weiwei
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My typical day is I wake up and appreciate that I can still wake up.
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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You only have temporary curiosity, amusement, and challenges, but that does not necessarily mean you are really convinced that it's necessary or that it's not even worth to do it. It's just a way you have to set up some kind of activities to follow your instincts or your curiosities.
Ai Weiwei
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That's why I always question this sense. The feeling of home really requires a lot of trust. It requires you to identify with it, which I always find myself very contradictory to.
Ai Weiwei
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Life is much more interesting when you make a little bit of effort.
Ai Weiwei
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I want people to see their own power.
Ai Weiwei
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If it's possible, I will have some noodles in the morning and start talking to people, start to think about a few things in my head - the project or a few ideas which are not finished or if there are possible directions and what will lead into another game. It's always like setting up some kind of game you can continuously play.
Ai Weiwei
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Democracy, material wealth, and universal education are the soil upon which modernism exists.
Ai Weiwei
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A nation that has no music and no fairytales is a tragedy.
Ai Weiwei
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Now many enterprises are made by individuals, so the attitude has started to change.
Ai Weiwei
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All the auction houses care about is the selling of luxury goods.
Ai Weiwei
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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.
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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Warhol influenced me because of his writing. If I had never read his writings and interviews, I would never have understood his work.
Ai Weiwei
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The so-called culture nowadays is only a fake one with a superficial front. It is an empty lie.
Ai Weiwei