Share
×
Inspirational Quotes
Authors
Professions
Topics
Tags
Quote
We grew up in a very material-lacking socialist society, but today China is a capitalist society. It's very materialistic. It's full of desire and luxury goods.
Ai Weiwei
Share
Change background
T
T
T
Change font
Original
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
Desire
Goods
Today
Luxury
Material
China
Materials
Materialistic
Grew
Lacking
Full
Socialist
Society
Capitalist
More quotes by Ai Weiwei
China hasn't only existed for one day. Now, the whole nation has become richer and it's become a problem. The problem is universal. The factor is big. Everybody has to rethink the balance of the world and the whole landscape.
Ai Weiwei
I’m an artist who is always looking for what is possible. I’m always looking to extend the boundaries.
Ai Weiwei
Twitter is most suitable for me. In the Chinese language, 140 characters is a novella.
Ai Weiwei
Democracy, material wealth, and universal education are the soil upon which modernism exists.
Ai Weiwei
China partially wants to become part of the world. By hosting the Olympics and the Expo, they made a big effort to tell people: Look, we are the same. They want to be accepted by the international community.
Ai Weiwei
Only with the Internet can a peasant I have never met hear my voice and I can learn what's on his mind. A fairy tale has come true.
Ai Weiwei
New York has given me a lot, but I still don't consider it home.
Ai Weiwei
Just look at the statistics: Each university has tens of thousands of applications for students who want to be in art school, but they can only accept a few hundred.
Ai Weiwei
My image of what a city should be - the super-rich and all the poor and desperate and the people who have some kind of a desire. It's a surviving game, people trying to survive on many different levels.
Ai Weiwei
Individual that means he has his own special way to communicate, which creates the form of him. In the information age, this expression and communication has become so different.
Ai Weiwei
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.
Ai Weiwei
Art is always about overcoming obstacles between the inner condition and the skill for expression.
Ai Weiwei
The relationship between the Chinese government and me is like a Cold War.
Ai Weiwei
I also have to speak out for people around me who are afraid, who think it is not worth it or who have totally given up hope. So I want to set an example: you can do it and this is OK, to speak out.
Ai Weiwei
I never had a sense of home.
Ai Weiwei
To survive, China had to open up to the West. It could not survive otherwise. This was after many millions have died of hunger in a country that was like North Korea is today. Once we became part of global competition, we had to agree to some rules. It's painful, but we had to. Otherwise there was no way to survive.
Ai Weiwei
If my art has nothing to do with people's pain and sorrow, what is 'art' for?
Ai Weiwei
[Being unique] gives so much privilege to people who can make it, rather than having some moral and aesthetic discussions.
Ai Weiwei
For all the tough talk about China during the presidential debates, Romney and Obama evaded any mention of China's suspect human rights record, corruption, and rule of law. By not tackling these controversial topics, the candidates are protecting a strategic partnership with China at the expense of essential human values and beliefs.
Ai Weiwei
I don't think it's worth discussing new directions in the context of Chinese art - there were no old directions, either. Chinese art has never had any clear orientation.
Ai Weiwei
