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Maybe [success] is because I'm in China and I'm more open. Maybe it's my independent behavior, or because I participated in certain projects. I have no idea.

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
Certain
China
Ideas
Projects
Independent
Behavior
Open
Maybe
Success
Idea
Participated

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

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I think art is a very important weapon to achieve human freedom
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[Being unique] gives so much privilege to people who can make it, rather than having some moral and aesthetic discussions.
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I’m an artist who is always looking for what is possible. I’m always looking to extend the boundaries.
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New York has given me a lot, but I still don't consider it home.
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Life is art. Art is life. I never separate it.
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To express yourself needs a reason, but expressing yourself is the reason.
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...photographs are facts, but not necessarily true... The present always surpasses the past, and the future will not care about today.
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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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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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I think it’s a responsibility for any artist to protect freedom of expression and to use any way to extend this power.
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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.
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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.
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Everyone thinks the Chinese government selected me. Never ever. I was selected by Herzog and de Meuron.
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I spent a lot of time standing on street corners [of New York City] talking to local residents. I spent time in bookstores and galleries. But most of the time, I really did not have much to do.
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Politics is like air and water. And you know if there is bad politics. Everyone is polluted. Everyone is unhealthy. See the people walking on the street: how they act.
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New York is a city where you're so alone, you're an individual, you can disappear. You can make something happen. But it's very different to make something happen in the art world.
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Because Chinese art is booming, it legitimizes this profession.
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My angst and my insecurity reflect the state's angst and insecurity. The state is scared too.
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I think it's more important to show your work to the public.
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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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