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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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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
Give
Measured
Matter
Absurd
Giving
Price
Something
Lows
Always
Numbers
High
Money
Certain
Artwork

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

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I'm most embarrassed at my art shows, even though I don't show it.
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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.
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Of course, people will call you an old artist or young artist, which is just a character of you. But personally, I don't think my work and my understanding of art is so much related to being Chinese, but the character of that. Maybe it's beyond my own consciousness.
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Just look at the statistics: Each university has tens of thousands of applications for students who want to be in art school, but they can only accept a few hundred.
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Everyone wants an iPhone, but it would be impossible to design an iPhone in China because it's not a product it's an understanding of human nature.
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I think of art as coming from daily life, daily experience. I think it's very important not to have it become work for some kind of elite circle.
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I'm not nostalgic about the old city. I don't enjoy it that much. It was just a city with one emperor and the rest of them just rats or meaningless people.
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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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The media is the message. It carries the full intention and the meaning. Once you change it...it's very disturbing.
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I curated this show [Shanghai Biennale ], I was by no means trying to shock people or be controversial.
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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 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.
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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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Every day I'm learning something new from the practice. It's very rewarding.
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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.
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The so-called culture nowadays is only a fake one with a superficial front. It is an empty lie.
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Censorship is saying: I'm the one who says the last sentence. Whatever you say, the conclusion is mine. But the internet is like a tree that is growing. The people will always have the last word – even if someone has a very weak, quiet voice. Such power will collapse because of a whisper.
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Even though everybody who looked at me would call me a Chinese artist, that's the 1980s. New York in the '80s was not so interesting. I think it's quite narrow-minded. There wasn't much encouragement or opportunities for any artist - not just Chinese artists.
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Liberty is about the right to question everything.
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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.
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