In China, we don’t have any contemporary art museums. Until a few years ago, we didn’t even have a gallery.
AI WEIWEIOf course, most luxury goods in China are for corrupted officials and their relatives. And that made China become the biggest luxury-goods market.
More Ai Weiwei Quotes
-
-
Once you’ve tasted freedom, it stays in your heart and no one can take it. Then, you can be more powerful than a whole country.
AI WEIWEI -
Otherwise, I think the building can be bigger, larger, and the city can be much more crazy. The problem is the government structure is so deadly stupid, not really solving problems but creating a lot of problems itself every day.
AI WEIWEI -
I think by shattering it we can create a new form, a new way to look at what is valuable – how we decide what is valuable.
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 -
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 -
Today, the general masses in this society are in this political-social condition that really encourages people to become rich and become a star and be unique.
AI WEIWEI -
A few thousand are to be built in the next few years, all using taxpayer money. But there is no system, no research, no content, no good programs, no good managers.
AI WEIWEI -
Ordinary people should have the same ability to understand art as anybody else. I don’t think art is elite or mysterious. I don’t think anybody can separate art from politics.
AI WEIWEI -
Creativity is the power to act.
AI WEIWEI -
I will bring 1,001 Chinese to participate as my artwork there – any Chinese who is a Chinese passport holder and over eighteen years old could apply through my blog.
AI WEIWEI -
Choices after waking up: To be true or to lie? To take action or be brainwashed? To be free or be jailed?
AI WEIWEI -
Somehow, we [ Tan Dun and director Chen Kaige] were all privileged at the time; we could be outside of China. But at the moment, we had no sense of what the future was going to be like.
AI WEIWEI -
I was an illegal alien for many, many years. I couldn’t move. If I moved I could not even get a visa back.
AI WEIWEI -
As a human being, member of society, you must clearly state your mind. It’s a responsibility. It is the way you identify yourself otherwise you don’t know who you are and why you are here.
AI WEIWEI -
It is not an easy job to govern China, I am aware of that. There are crises and emergencies all the time, we might not even be aware of some. But I am afraid we’ll have to wait and observe precisely what the government is up to.
AI WEIWEI