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Everyone thinks the Chinese government selected me. Never ever. I was selected by Herzog and de Meuron.

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
Thinks
Everyone
Government
Ever
Never
Thinking
Herzog
Selected
Chinese

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

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The people who control culture in China have no culture.
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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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The relationship between the Chinese government and me is like a Cold War.
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I think U.S. and China is a big opportunity, to be seen as partner or some kind of strategic partner maybe. But those kind of powers have a way of getting too big, then we'll have competition. And who is going to win the competition if U.S. cannot hold a strong ideology? And even the U.S. would've lost the ground to win.
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Creativity is part of human nature. It can only be untaught.
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Of course, most luxury goods in China are for corrupted officials and their relatives. And that made China become the biggest luxury-goods market. In this kind of dictatorship, in this kind of totalitarian society, it is easy to make deals that you cannot make in a democratic society.
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I never regret anything.
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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.
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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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Everything is selected by the central government without good judgment or an understanding of culture to make it really safe. They will become nobody to maintain their power and be raised to the next higher level.
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My childhood was quite extreme. Sometimes I was so weak I could not stand up. But now I am so strong. Life is unpredictable
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I always want to design a frame that’s open to everyone. I don’t see art as a secret code.
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Every day I'm learning something new from the practice. It's very rewarding.
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I think Donald Trump should cool down a little bit. To pay more attention to the history. To really understand what U.S.'s value is about. I think, as a president, those things you always have to ask.
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[Museums] all belongs to the cultural department, which is the biggest cultural department in the world.
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In my case, I was stuck there for quite a while. New York is large enough to be a very abstract city, so nobody cares.
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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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I see the Beijing National Stadium as an architectural project. I accepted Herzog and De Meuron's invitation to collaborate on the design, and our proposal won the competition. From beginning to end, I stayed with the project. I am committed to fostering relationships between a city and its architecture.
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A historical property has morals and ethics of the society that created it and it can be revived. What I mean is that we can discover new possibilities from the process of dismantling, transforming, and recreating.
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The Internet is uncontrollable. And if the Internet is uncontrollable, freedom will win. It's as simple as that.
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