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 WEIWEIThe Internet is uncontrollable. And if the Internet is uncontrollable, freedom will win. It’s as simple as that.
More Ai Weiwei Quotes
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The tragic reality of today is reflected in the true plight of our spiritual existence. We are spineless and cannot stand straight.
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I never think any place is better than others.
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I came back [to Beijing ] because that’s the only time I had an excuse to come back, or otherwise I would never have a reason to come back.
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I think art certainly is the vehicle for us to develop any new ideas, to be creative, to extend our imagination, to change the current conditions.
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I have people working together, doing different things: architecture, art installation, photography, publishing, and curatorial works and design.
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The Internet has established a public sphere and developed a pressure which the government can no longer ignore.
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I think Allen [Ginsberg] was a person who’s like a child.
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In my life, I often make so-called major decisions by very quick, immediate responses.
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The fantasy we had with pearls was always so luxurious and unique with a kind of rareness.
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Politics is like air and water. And you know if there is bad politics. Everyone is polluted. Everyone is unhealthy. See the people walking on the street: how they act.
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Just look at the statistics: Each university has tens of thousands of applications for students who want to be in art school, but they can only accept a few hundred.
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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.
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If human rights are supposed to have any meaning, then they have to be discussed openly.
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It became like a symbolic thing, to be “an artist.” After Duchamp, I realized that being an artist is more about a lifestyle and attitude than producing some product.
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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.
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