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Even if there have been setbacks during these past years, China is changing. China's society is opening.
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
Even
Years
Setbacks
Setback
Opening
Changing
China
Society
Past
More quotes by Ai Weiwei
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
Chinese citizens have never had the right to really express their opinions in the constitution it says you can, but in the real world it is more dangerous. In the west people think it's a right they're born with. Here it's a right given by the government, and one that's not really practised.
Ai Weiwei
You need a purpose to express yourself, but that expression is its own purpose.
Ai Weiwei
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
I think of art as coming from daily life, daily experience. I think it's very important not to have it become work for some kind of elite circle.
Ai Weiwei
I don't personally feel any association with a kind of culture related to state, or culture related to power, which I think is always disgusting.
Ai Weiwei
Life is much more interesting when you make a little bit of effort.
Ai Weiwei
Every day I'm learning something new from the practice. It's very rewarding.
Ai Weiwei
New York was not a romantic city at [80th]. Nobody knows who you are and you don't have to care about anybody else. It's a very cold city, I should say.
Ai Weiwei
Cities really are mental conditions. Beijing is a nightmare. A constant nightmare.
Ai Weiwei
People have a tendency to become elite rather than to care about the general conditions of the society, which makes me sick. It's an unbearable condition.
Ai Weiwei
I never saw [Allen Ginsberg] as some kind of crazy figure.
Ai Weiwei
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
Expressing oneself is like a drug. I'm so addicted to it.
Ai Weiwei
I believe [the architecture firm] Herzog and de Meuron and our collaboration made the product the best it could be.
Ai Weiwei
It is not an easy job to govern China, I am aware of that.
Ai Weiwei
Your own acts tell the world who you are and what kind of society you think it should be.
Ai Weiwei
My understanding of Chinese history is limited. So far, I have only scratched its surface I wish I could find out more.
Ai Weiwei
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
For artists and intellectuals today, what is most needed is to be clear about social responsibility, because that is what most people automatically give up. Just to protect yourself as an individual is very political. You don't have to march on Tiananmen, but you do have to be clear-minded, to find your own means of expression.
Ai Weiwei
