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[Cultural departments] don't care about culture. Maybe they're the furthest from the people who understand culture.

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
Care
People
Furthest
Departments
Cultural
Department
Maybe
Understand
Culture

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

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I don't personally feel any association with a kind of culture related to state, or culture related to power, which I think is always disgusting.
Ai Weiwei
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At the moment about 350,000 students return to China from abroad each year - 350,000 young and educated people. I know about them because they know me and often ask me in the street if they can take a selfie with me. These folks are creative and ironic, and the government can ultimately not control what is going on in their heads.
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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.
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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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The Internet has established a public sphere and developed a pressure which the government can no longer ignore.
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New York has given me a lot, but I still don't consider it home.
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I loved New York — every inch of it. It was a little bit scary at that time, but still, the excitement was so strong — visually and intellectually. It was like a monster.
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If there is no freedom of expression, then the beauty of life is lost. Participation in a society is not an artistic choice, it’s a human need.
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I never regret anything.
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All the auction houses care about is the selling of luxury goods.
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If you just turn to your paper or television each day, there are thousands of stories that are much more shocking than the gallery artworks.
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We have to give our opinion, we have to say something, or we are a part of it. As an artist I am forced to say something.
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You need a purpose to express yourself, but that expression is its own purpose.
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China and the U.S. are two societies with very different attitudes towards opinion and criticism. In China, I am constantly under surveillance. Even my slightest, most innocuous move can - and often is - censored by Chinese authorities.
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Even if I have hundreds of things to do, the disconnected feeling is still there because it is very hard to find a real purpose of life.
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To call yourself a Chinese artist or woman artist or African artist reflects a certain kind of condition. To me, that is not necessary.
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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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Life is art. Art is life. I never separate it.
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This world should be much more open and should be much more free, so the young people would have the chance to exercise the quality of their lives.
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Life is never guaranteed to be safe, so we better use it while we are still in good condition.
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