Even though everybody who looked at me would call me a Chinese artist, that’s the 1980s. New York in the ’80s was not so interesting.
AI WEIWEIA 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.
More Ai Weiwei Quotes
-
-
We are living in a popular culture where everything is overexposed.
AI WEIWEI -
I grew up in a desert, which has no kind of imagination.
AI WEIWEI -
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 -
I wouldn’t say I’ve become more radical: I was born radical.
AI WEIWEI -
I don’t think China has professional museums – not in the past, present, or near future.
AI WEIWEI -
I think the pearls – one is a necklace, and another you have five hundred pounds of pearls, which may be one million pearls in a bowl – really show a kind of [society] condition.
AI WEIWEI -
Now you have the equal opportunity to equip yourself through information and knowledge and express yourself as an independent mind.
AI WEIWEI -
This is a very general understanding of art in China, that being an artist can make you money and turn you into a star.
AI WEIWEI -
I have always stated I designed the stadium as a toilet seat.
AI WEIWEI -
The only way to avoid misunderstanding, war and bloodshed is to defend freedom of expression and to communicate with sincerity, concern and good intentions.
AI WEIWEI -
[Cultural departments] don’t care about culture. Maybe they’re the furthest from the people who understand culture.
AI WEIWEI -
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.
AI WEIWEI -
For those actors and directors who produce films which are always about the old kingdom or about heroes.
AI WEIWEI -
I think China is laughing about the results of the presidential elections. China, Russia, they all laugh about it.
AI WEIWEI -
I’m just bringing them to Kassel to see the art show, and pay their room and board.
AI WEIWEI






