Quote

Modern Chinese culture is weak and lackluster.

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
Culture
Chinese
Weak
Modern

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

Image
I'm always interested in people who are not orientated in art circles to become part of it.
Ai Weiwei
Image
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
Image
It became like a symbolic thing, to be “an artist.” After Duchamp, I realized that being an artist is more about a lifestyle and attitude than producing some product.
Ai Weiwei
Image
We move so fast that memory is something we can only grasp
Ai Weiwei
Image
The misconception of totalitarianism is that freedom can be imprisoned. This is not the case. When you constrain freedom, freedom will take flight and land on a windowsill.
Ai Weiwei
Image
I have to respect my life, and free expression is part of my life. I can never really silence myself.
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
Life is art. Art is life. I never separate it. I don’t feel that much anger. I equally have a lot of joy.
Ai Weiwei
Image
In a society like this there is no negotiation, no discussion, except to tell you that power can crush you any time they want — not only you, your whole family and all people like you.
Ai Weiwei
Image
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
Image
We should use this public sphere and redefine - beyond China's borders - what a government is allowed to do, where its powers end and where the realm of a citizen's privacy begins.
Ai Weiwei
Image
Growing up, my family was an enemy of the state. I have experienced more disappointment than joy, much more sad stories or desperate conditions.
Ai Weiwei
Image
If my art has nothing to do with people's pain and sorrow, what is 'art' for?
Ai Weiwei
Image
[Cultural departments] don't care about culture. Maybe they're the furthest from the people who understand culture.
Ai Weiwei
Image
You need a purpose to express yourself, but that expression is its own purpose.
Ai Weiwei
Image
Life is art. Art is life. I never separate it.
Ai Weiwei
Image
I will never leave China, unless I am forced to. Because China is mine. I will not leave something that belongs to me in the hands of people I do not trust.
Ai Weiwei
Image
I often feel more disgust than pride about this kind of success. So there's no regret whatsoever.
Ai Weiwei
Image
People have a tendency to become elite rather than to care about the general conditions of the society, which makes me sick. It's an unbearable condition.
Ai Weiwei
Image
The whole attitude of society has become much more open and realistic. They realize that the only way to make a more democratic and free society is to let different opinions come out.
Ai Weiwei