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I lived there [ in New York City] as an artist, but never as a Chinese artist.

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
Chinese
York
Lived
City
Cities
Artist
Never

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

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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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This week, the world gathers in Beijing for the 2008 Olympic games. This is the extraordinary moment China has been dreaming of for 100 years. People have been longing for this moment, because it symbolises a turning point in China's relationship with the outside world.
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Today, we jump into this globalization of the economy and the internet age.
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Recently I danced in a video spoof of the song 'Gangnam Style,' and it was quickly banned across multiple Chinese online video platforms. But the story still traveled all over the world, carried in hundreds of international media reports.
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I remember one little rainy day I went searching for this apartment and I saw so many people standing on a stoop on the corner in the rain. Later I realized, that was drug traffic. They were all buying drugs.
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If a nation cannot face its past, it has no future.
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Behind every political deal in this country, the first casualties are always the ordinary people, who are barely treated as human.
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Life is art. Art is life. I never separate it.
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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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Life is much more interesting when you make a little bit of effort.
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In the '80s, you couldn't walk in the neighborhood without looking back to see if anyone was following you. You had your key in your hand before you got to your apartment and you'd rush in so you didn't have to stop.
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The relationship between the Chinese government and me is like a Cold War.
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This so-called contemporary art is not a form, but a philosophy of society.
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If I look at it, I would laugh. I don't know how I became successful.
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China is at a different stage of development, human rights are violated here much more often. And still, we see improvements even here.
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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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This is a very general understanding of art in China, that being an artist can make you money and turn you into a star.
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We should also leave behind discrimination, because it is narrow-minded and ignorant, denies contact and warmth and corrodes mankind's belief that we can better ourselves. The only way to avoid misunderstanding, war and bloodshed is to defend freedom of expression and to communicate with sincerity, concern and good intentions.
Ai Weiwei
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I'm totally independent. I don't bear any responsibility to any system.
Ai Weiwei
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I was an illegal alien for many, many years. I couldn't move. If I moved I could not even get a visa back.
Ai Weiwei