Quote

It's always the rich and there's plenty to waste, yet still China has a lot of people living in very spare, poor conditions.

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
Conditions
Rich
Poor
Living
Spare
Stills
Spares
Still
Plenty
Always
China
People
Waste

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

Image
Liberty is about our rights to question everything.
Ai Weiwei
Image
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.
Ai Weiwei
Image
Art should live in the heart of the people. Ordinary people should have the same ability to understand art as anybody else. I don't think art is elite or mysterious.
Ai Weiwei
Image
I think I'm just a traveler. When you walk across a river and there's no bridge, you build one. I'm used to having to deal with Chinese Communist ideology - it's not really an ideology, but a method of control. But China's problems are not just China's problems - they're human problems. Humanity has always worked better when you see it as one.
Ai Weiwei
Image
[Cultural department] understand nothing but bureaucratic daily affairs. They don't care about culture.
Ai Weiwei
Image
I curated this show [Shanghai Biennale ], I was by no means trying to shock people or be controversial.
Ai Weiwei
Image
Society becomes very destructive.
Ai Weiwei
Image
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
Image
I don't think [price] reflects if the work is good or bad.A good artist shouldn't be nervous about that.
Ai Weiwei
Image
Many people are going to use [Beijing National Stadium], which makes it more meaningful. If we don't design it, somebody else has to design it.
Ai Weiwei
Image
I have always stated I designed the stadium as a toilet seat. I don't care if this is a great cultural event or a national symbol. It has nothing to do with me. It deals with the city.
Ai Weiwei
Image
To experience poetry is to see over and above reality. It is to discover that which is beyond the physical, to experience another life and another level of feeling. It is to wonder about the world, to understand the nature of people and, most importantly, to be shared with another, old or young, known or unknown.
Ai Weiwei
Image
The practice of photography is no longer a means for recording reality. Instead, it has become reality itself
Ai Weiwei
Image
The fantasy we had with pearls was always so luxurious and unique with a kind of rareness.
Ai Weiwei
Image
Dictatorship is a story about death of others who turn out to be you coincidently.
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
You're still being looked at as somebody who - it's a very complicated issue.
Ai Weiwei
Image
I believe [the architecture firm] Herzog and de Meuron and our collaboration made the product the best it could be.
Ai Weiwei
Image
Whenever there is injustice, there is tension. But in China it is very hard to release your anger unless you burn yourself or you jump from a bridge. In a society where there is no freedom of the press, it is difficult for victims to be noticed.
Ai Weiwei
Image
I suddenly realized I was getting ten opening notes a day on my mobile phone, more than when I was in New York. But this is China, where nothing is surprising.
Ai Weiwei