Quote

I never had secure, belonging feelings with this society [in China].

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
Never
Belonging
Secure
China
Society
Feelings

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

Image
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
Image
If my art has nothing to do with people's pain and sorrow, what is 'art' for?
Ai Weiwei
Image
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.
Ai Weiwei
Image
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.
Ai Weiwei
Image
For years, I refused to go to any openings, not even my own.
Ai Weiwei
Image
You're still being looked at as somebody who - it's a very complicated issue.
Ai Weiwei
Image
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
Image
For me, it is OK as long as I can breathe, as long as my heart is pumping, as long as I can express myself.
Ai Weiwei
Image
I think by shattering it we can create a new form, a new way to look at what is valuable — how we decide what is valuable.
Ai Weiwei
Image
The society was so different [in China] - it was a feudalistic society. It didn't come to a point of industrial revolution until twenty years ago.
Ai Weiwei
Image
I saw [Allen Ginsberg] more as an old man who liked poetry and who had a lot of physical and emotional problems. We liked our time together.
Ai Weiwei
Image
Creativity is the power to reject the past, to change the status quo, and to seek new potential. Simply put, aside from using one's imagination - perhaps more importantly - creativity is the power to act.
Ai Weiwei
Image
I grew up in a desert, which has no kind of imagination.
Ai Weiwei
Image
I am very much interested in the so-called useless object. I mean, it takes perfect craftsmanship, beautiful material carefully measured and crafted, but at the same time it’s really useless.
Ai Weiwei
Image
No outdoor sports can be more elegant than throwing stones at autocracy no melees can be more exciting than those in cyberspace.
Ai Weiwei
Image
Historically, China is not a nation of sportsmen. We traditionally put more emphasis on being close to nature than pushing endlessly to excel. A philosophy that values tranquil contemplation of the landscape cannot easily be adapted to the Olympic slogan of 'higher, stronger, faster.'
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
Somehow, we [ Tan Dun and director Chen Kaige] were all privileged at the time we could be outside of China. But at the moment, we had no sense of what the future was going to be like.
Ai Weiwei
Image
In the end, I think, the state's rigidity is a function of its own insecurity, its indecisiveness.
Ai Weiwei
Image
The demand for individual freedom leads us to different realms, and it enables us to participate in social events.
Ai Weiwei