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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.

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
Shocking
Thousands
Paper
Television
Turn
Turns
Artworks
Stories
Artwork
Much
Gallery

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

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I don't think China has professional museums - not in the past, present, or near future.
Ai Weiwei
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I don't believe in the so-called Olympic spirit. I speak from personal experience. When China hosted the Games, it failed to include the people. The event was constructed without regard for their joy.
Ai Weiwei
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[Shanghai Biennale] has been my attitude for as long as I've been practicing art and other cultural-related activities.
Ai Weiwei
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We see the tendency in the world to criticise democracy and sometimes even to say that authoritarian countries like China are more efficient. That is very short-sighted. China looks efficient only because it can sacrifice most people's rights. This is not something the west should be happy about.
Ai Weiwei
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A nation like China has become one of the biggest production fields for exporting cheap labor, which also re-questions our history and past, re-questions human desire, and the human illusions of the past.
Ai Weiwei
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New York has given me a lot, but I still don't consider it home.
Ai Weiwei
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I call on people to be 'obsessed citizens,' forever questioning and asking for accountability. That's the only chance we have today of a healthy and happy life.
Ai Weiwei
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The practice of photography is no longer a means for recording reality. Instead, it has become reality itself
Ai Weiwei
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My understanding of Chinese history is limited. So far, I have only scratched its surface I wish I could find out more.
Ai Weiwei
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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
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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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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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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.
Ai Weiwei
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The Internet is uncontrollable. And if the Internet is uncontrollable, freedom will win. It's as simple as that.
Ai Weiwei
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If a master, a wise and experienced man, wields a great weapon, that's beautiful. He can serve peace with it. But if someone's emotions are imbalanced, even if he has the best equipment, he will still mean danger. Modern technology requires calm. You shouldn't trust anyone with a car who has no knowledge about vehicles or roads.
Ai Weiwei
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If a society cannot even support somebody like me, then people ask: Who is under protection then? That's why there is such support for me. It is not because I am so beautiful or I am so charming. People feel: This guy is fighting for us.
Ai Weiwei
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It doesn't matter where I am - China will stay in me. I don't know how far I can still walk on this road and what is the limit.
Ai Weiwei
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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
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I never had secure, belonging feelings with this society [in China].
Ai Weiwei
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Many people I know - writers, poets - they have all been sentenced not once but sometimes three times after they come out. They serve five or six years, come out another time, and then nine years. Come out again, 12 years. Only because they have a different opinion. They are innocent people, they have beautiful minds, beautiful hearts.
Ai Weiwei