But personally, I don’t think my work and my understanding of art is so much related to being Chinese, but the character of that. Maybe it’s beyond my own consciousness.
AI WEIWEIMaybe being powerful means to be fragile.
More Ai Weiwei Quotes
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The deadly weapon against totalitarian society is openness – doing everything very openly on the Internet, letting people know every detail, any little development. Once it is out there, everybody can make their own judgement.
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There’s no such thing as “fixed” culture. China is also becoming more global. Its problems are becoming international problems, becoming German problems, becoming American problems.
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I don’t think I was very structured in that society and I don’t really believe in personal success, which most Americans believe in.
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As long as I can communicate, I’m not so lonely. If I cannot travel, or do art, or have company, if they take away all my belongings, it doesn’t matter at all.
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Chinese government is very clearly losing power in every aspect, but trying to fix up all the problems or potential problems.
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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.
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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.
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In China, we don’t have any contemporary art museums. Until a few years ago, we didn’t even have a gallery.
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Self-censorship is insulting to the self. Timidity is a hopeless way forward.
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The people will always have the last word – even if someone has a very weak, quiet voice. Such power will collapse because of a whisper.
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I think Allen [Ginsberg] was a person who’s like a child.
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We literally lived underground. We dug a hole and lived there for years. My father cleaned public toilets, even though he was a highly respected poet.
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Mass production is nothing new. Weren’t cathedrals built through mass production? The pyramids?
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I think it’s quite narrow-minded. There wasn’t much encouragement or opportunities for any artist – not just Chinese artists.
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I believe [the architecture firm] Herzog and de Meuron and our collaboration made the product the best it could be.
AI WEIWEI