Many people are going to use [Beijing National Stadium], which makes it more meaningful. If we don’t design it, somebody else has to design it.
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.
More Ai Weiwei Quotes
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Many people are going to use [Beijing National Stadium], which makes it more meaningful. If we don’t design it, somebody else has to design it.
AI WEIWEI -
Chinese government is very clearly losing power in every aspect, but trying to fix up all the problems or potential problems.
AI WEIWEI -
It’s just a way you have to set up some kind of activities to follow your instincts or your curiosities.
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I don’t think China should care if this crazy old guy should have a show here or not.
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If a master, a wise and experienced man, wields a great weapon, that’s beautiful. He can serve peace with it. But if someone’s emotions are imbalanced, even if he has the best equipment,
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…photographs are facts, but not necessarily true… The present always surpasses the past, and the future will not care about today.
AI WEIWEI -
Democracy, material wealth, and universal education are the soil upon which modernism exists.
AI WEIWEI -
My definition of art has always been the same. It is about freedom of expression, a new way of communication. It is never about exhibiting in museums or about hanging it on the wall.
AI WEIWEI -
I think optimism is whether you are still exhilarated by life, whether you are curious, whether you still believe there is possibility.
AI WEIWEI -
I believe [the architecture firm] Herzog and de Meuron and our collaboration made the product the best it could be.
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The whole Chinese system – not just the political leadership, the military too, the whole power structure, our education system, the whole of society – is suffering from being cut off from the free flow of information.
AI WEIWEI -
Everyone wants an iPhone, but it would be impossible to design an iPhone in China because it’s not a product; it’s an understanding of human nature.
AI WEIWEI -
My definition of art has always been the same. It is about freedom of expression. I don’t think anybody can separate art from politics. The intention to separate [the two] is itself a very political intention.
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If there is no freedom of expression, then the beauty of life is lost. Participation in a society is not an artistic choice, it’s a human need.
AI WEIWEI -
I saw [Allen Ginsberg] more as an old man who liked poetry and who had a lot of physical and emotional problems. We liked our time together.
AI WEIWEI -
For those actors and directors who produce films which are always about the old kingdom or about heroes.
AI WEIWEI