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.
AI WEIWEII don’t think China has professional museums – not in the past, present, or near future.
More Ai Weiwei Quotes
-
-
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.
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 -
Imagine one day, the hateful world around you collapses. And it is your attitude, words and actions that put an end to it. Will you be excited?
AI WEIWEI -
[Therefore] holding a trial outside the court. I think that is fairness, that is justice, that is a civil society. Otherwise call it an evil society because everything is hidden.
AI WEIWEI -
Selling high or low doesn’t mean anything. It has to do purely with the market.
AI WEIWEI -
Man has a tendency to try to give clear reasons to be rational, but often you can see how all those reasons are not convincing and turn out to be a big nonsense.
AI WEIWEI -
To give a price to an artwork, no matter how high or low, is always absurd. It’s not something that can be measured by money or by certain numbers.
AI WEIWEI -
Censorship is saying: “I’m the one who says the last sentence. Whatever you say, the conclusion is mine.” But the internet is like a tree that is growing.
AI WEIWEI -
Behind every political deal in this country, the first casualties are always the ordinary people, who are barely treated as human.
AI WEIWEI -
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.
AI WEIWEI -
I deal with students every day – from China, Germany, the United States, Hong Kong and Taiwan. And I’ve noticed that the Chinese students are the least trained in having a sense of aesthetics.
AI WEIWEI -
I don’t personally feel any association with a kind of culture related to state, or culture related to power, which I think is always disgusting.
AI WEIWEI -
You’re still being looked at as somebody who – it’s a very complicated issue.
AI WEIWEI -
Today, we jump into this globalization of the economy and the internet age.
AI WEIWEI -
[Cultural department] understand nothing but bureaucratic daily affairs. They don’t care about culture.
AI WEIWEI